Well isn't this just pleasant
by NoEXitInRL
Summary: (OC cross over Hazbin Hotel-Helluva Boss) After buying an old book that mysteriously turned up on the sale rack at the bookstore, Coco finds her late-in life start hopelessly turn railed with a trip to Hell! Now less worried about University projects and term papers, she's worried about being eaten alive and eternal damnation! And what's with this stupid curse?
1. Worst deal ever (part 1)

-Inside Hell-

"Okay, can anyone remember the last place they put the fucking book!?"

Blitzo (the 'O' is silent) was lifting up yet another table inside the office of I.M.P., which currently looked like a bomb had exploded inside of it. Desks, chairs, the printer and water fountain were turned over. Avocado salad and three day of Chipolte (yes they have that in Hell too, what did you think this place is a third world country?) was tossed and smeared all over the floors. And there was the ever so not discrete smell of something burning. Oh, but that could be from the ceremonial candles that were still burning. And maybe also from the trash fire…

"I can't find it anywhere!" Milly, a salamandian-like red imp with a southern accent said, appearing out of the storage closet and holding an armful of different highly dangerous weapons. "It's not where we keep any of our inventory!"

"And I can't find it in any of the other office rooms," Moxxy, another red imp with white hair and long black and white stripped horns added; sticking his head into the room carefully, knowing that Blitzo was most likely going to throw that table any minute now.

"I can't find it in your office either," Luna said, still entranced with swiping on her cell phone.

"You're not even looking!" Milly said, angrily pointing at Luna and getting flipped off in response.

Moxxy carefully entered the room and shut the door behind him. It was clear to him that this search was going nowhere. Even if they did dig up the entire building from it's foundations, there's no way that anyone of these morons could find the book.

"Sir," Moxxy siad, his brow furrowed and his voice showing he's lost all patience for this hopeless search. "It's obvious the book's not here."

"I know that!" Blitzo shouted, throwing the table through the window and hitting a homeless demon in the process. "So start looking for it everywhere! Who looked in the bathrooms? The staff kitchen? The spare bunks and-"

"SIR!" Moxxy shouted, quickly stomping down more of his irritation with a short growl before crossing his arms and looking up again. "I meant, it's not HERE. It can't be in Hell if the portal's still open."

Everyone stopped for a moment and looked at one another. Then, they all turned and peeked into the back room that had been serving as the reverse-summoning spot for the last few months. There was definetly still a strong purple circle etched into the ground, and the ceremonial candles were still burning strong even if they were low.

"Someone must have left the book in the living world," Moxxy explained, gesturing his arm at the circle with a tired glance. "That means, we gotta go back and get it."

"Alright," Blitzo crossed his arms and glared at the two imps with a growl like a scolding father. "Which one of you left the book behind?"

"Us!?" Moxxy cried insulted, pressing his hands to his chest and glaring up at his boss. "Why would we leave it behind!? You're the one in charge of summoning this!"

"We you're the ones in charge of inventory preperation!" Blitzo fired back.

"But we couldn't have left the book behind," Milly almost-calmly defended, looking confused at why the portal was still even open. "We only ever carry the weapons with us!"

"You're the one who opens and summons the portal!" Moxxy re-accused.

"Well I couldn't have taken it," Blitzo assured, crossing his arms over his chest like a stubborn teenager. "I left it on the summoning alter because I wanted shotgun this kill."

"Why would you leave it on the summoning alter!?" Moxy again shouted. Completely astounded by his boss' obvious idiocy.

Luna just stood back and watched this whole fiasco. While she didn't care, she knew her paycheck could be at risk if these idiots kept bitching and not actually doing anything about finding that stupid book.

"What's even the big deal?" Luna let out a low growl and rolled her eyes. "The portal's still open but the book's not lost. Just go and get it already."

"Oh hoho~" Blitzo laughed a little before turning on a dainty like smile, turning out of character for a moment to give a more lovable persona for Luna. "It's not THAT easy~ Ya see, when the book is out of our hands- It's out of our control!"

"What!?" Moxxy yelled.

"Yeah!" Blitzo said cheerfully, turning around and stomping over to the portal. "You see, the book only belongs to the guys who are actually using it! Buuuuuut~~ IF the book happened to fall somewhere and someone else pick it up, that could technically mean it's possessed by someone else from now on."

"So you mean it's lost!?" Milly screamed, holding both hands beside her short horns in a panicked stance.

"Well, sort of." Blitzo said, the nuaince of this type of situation clearly lost on his employees. "Look, I'm not going to get into how complicated it is, but basically the book isn't owned by anyone. And we gotta get it back before someone actually does make a deal with it."

"I'm sorry," Moxxy said, holding up a clawed hand to break the conversation when he realized something that made his head hurt. "Did you say "make a deal with it"?"

"Is your husband hard of hearing, Milly," Blitzo smirked at Milly.

"What you mean "with it"!?" Moxxy said outraged. "It's a book! Not a person!"

"No, but it is magic." Blitzo explained, as if that solved everything. "Literally everything in that book is sentient and I can't afford to have it lost forever in the living world if some dumb idiot decides to make a pact with an all-powerful ancient being locked inside it's pages and completely screw with the concepts of good and evil for the rest of eternity."

Everyone stopped for a moment to look at Blitzo in confusion. Did that sound scarier than it did before?

"What?" Moxxy said.

"Oh yeah," Blitzo said offhandedly, shrugging his shoulders. "Why do you I never made an actual deal over it? What? You think I'm stupid enough to actually sign some kind of contract with a book OR that asshole Stollas? Ha!"

-In the Living Word, circa modern day, Edinburgh-

Halloween abroad just isn't the same as back in America. Coco had come to that conclusion after feeling unsatisfied in her futile attempts to find anything to reminisce about. No good horror movies, no enticing candy, no interesting halloween costumes, no Halloween festivals with hay rides, not even hot spiced-apple cider! There was just something missing in jumping in piles of damp leaves in the UK that was all engrossing back in small town America. But, that could also just be an over-romanicisation.

But, in defense of the entire United Kingdom, she wasn't really doing anything herself to get into the mood either. Halloween used to be so much fun, but after 27+ different Halloweens and a large hole in her bank account, Coco couldn't find any way to really "get in the mood" of celebrating. She made a half-hearted attempt by agreeing to be in her student groups' Halloween show and putting on tiny devil horns that weren't as obnoxious looking as most.

"Am I getting old now?" Coco wondered aloud, more worried about her random cynicalness and lack of child-like joy than the fact she looks like a loon talking to herself in public. "Or am I just secretly boring?"

It's definitely a sight to see a short, olive skinned girl dressed in a formal-like outfit with devil horns talking to herself in front of the public library. If she wasn't careful, someone might either suspect she's crazy or a teenager skipping school. Deciding she didn't want to go back home to get changed, she decked herself out in a solid costume of sorts: tight black pants, black suspenders found at the charity shop, a nice fitting white dress shirt and clip on bow tie that was all tied off with a headband with tiny devil horns glued on.

"Points for originality" no one would declare. But she did look snazzy.

"Meh," Coco shrugged, picking up her back and denim jacket and walking down the street. "I can worry about that later."

Coco is something that's a bit hard to narrow down. Not quiet a student and not quiet a potential drop out, she was a Grad student at the University and took herself not-so-seriously. She was like a drifting leaf, walking in and out of classrooms, club rooms, volunteers spots and short term jobs like wondering soul. She didn't seem to have any friends. And she also didn't have any enemies. Or admirers. Or… anything really. Aside from a room filled with crap in an apartment she shared with four other people from different parts of Europe.

Some had wondered "does she even have a family?" Before being reminded of the comical retellings of family stories and ill-advised excursions to the American country side. She'd be more recognized as "that American weirdo" before anything else by her habits and manners. But she didn't seem to bother anybody. Nor did anyone really bother her. Mostly, she was seen hanging around either the local library or cinema, just checking out new things from either place or out on a random walk somewhere sketching something or humming something.

How can anyone wander through life so aimlessly yet on a straight path? A part of it is that she just didn't really care where any particular road took her. As long as it was interesting and away from home.

And this road took her down to her favorite cafe and bookstore.

"One hot chocolate and an orange scone, please!" Coco said pleasantly and handing over her re-usable thermos. The cashier not really noticing but she still put on the same pleasant smile, Coco was a regular but this girl was not used to her yet.

"Name for the order?"

"Uh, just 'Coco'?" She blushed, feeling ridiculous at her own nickname.

"Short for anything?"

"Trust me. Just stick with Coco. It's easier to spell."

Coco rarely told anyone her full name anymore. It's already a mouthful. And she gets enough stares at for looking so ethnically ambiguous as it is. Or, well, she isn't stared at that much. But it helps to be able to make a joke about it so she can walk out of awkward conversations more intact than the rest.

Walking over to the window to wait, Coco weighed her options of how to most affectively waste her time. She could just sit on another bus for an hour until she had to go to school again, go back to the library, or browse the bookstore and walk out with several ill advised purchases.

'On the one hand, I'll immediately regret my decision, even as I'm doing it,' she thought to herself, remembering her last excursion to the bookstore. Every memory of walking into her favorite safe place leads to her walking away with her only substitution for real friends. Which has become both a social problem, financial problem and a clutter problem. '… But, it'll also be a lot of fun.'

Grabbing her warmed scone and thermos , Coco headed in the very familiar direction of the bookstore. By this time, the walk had become so familiar that she could even count the exact amount of steps it would take to get from one door to the next. That's how much time she spends alone by herself.

'I can't tell if this is cute or pathetic anymore,' Coco mocked herself, taking out the scone and biting into its sweet sweet sweet orange glazed goodness… 'Ah~ Whatever~ At least it's all nice and sweet.'

Edinburgh was strange. Sure, it's fun and interesting and she's glad she went there; but there was no real reason for her to BE there. She had been working for the past five years as both an ESL teacher and a counselor, and was going to grad school now to possibly 'find a better job' in international development (whatever that could really mean). But, she also knew she didn't have to be HERE. She had no real idea why she was here, just that she was and she was trying to enjoy it.

Coco tended to avoid a lot of people for no particular reason. She isolated herself as both a precaution and as if she liked to be alone for the majority of her time. Both true and false: she's achingly lonely and bored of talking to herself, but also not willing to let others hold over a conversation or ask her uncomfortable questions like 'so what do you want to do in the future?' Or 'why did you move to Edinburgh?'. She just honestly wanted to be alone after hearing those questions, but then once she was alone all she wanted was for someone to be with her as well.

'I need some friends,' Coco concluded, looking up at the yellow tree leaves and watching them fall before turning the corner to walk into the bookshop. 'Eh. I guess I can just live with stories for now.'

Coco tended to like these old shops and history stores, places with character and personalities that she could silently explore engrossed her. So this little bookshop in town was one of her favorite haunts. It's always stocked up with old novels and books, plenty of history books and art books, and the most interesting 'alternative' sections she's ever plundered around.

'I wanna sit and read in the corner for a little while.' Coco smiled, taking in a deep breath of the fresh book dust air as she closed the door behind her. She scanned the shelves in front of her, brushing up next to the discounted books as she made her way in. 'Maybe I'll check out the poets section or the mystery section. Just something to play before I-'

Her thoughts stopped after something caught her eyes.

"Who are you?" Coco asked, a small smile creeping up her face as she turned to the discounted books section. "You're new."

Crouching down, Coco spotted a large book with a dark, flat cover decorated in interesting red calligraphy and eye-shaped patterns. It's binding was thick and large, the paper inside looked old with a slight yellow faint. But the whole book seemed interesting on first glance.

"Let's take a look at you~" Coco cheered, happily reaching out and holding up the book only to have her arms fall at it's surprising weight. "Woah, fella! You're a lot heavier than you look!"

Laughing, Coco cracked open the book to the cover page to scan it's contents. The inside paper was soft and lightly fainted, an older book she guessed, and the ink was one deep black and the other a dark scarlet. There wasn't a title, the front page was an illustration of two hands holding an apple with eyes and red flowers surrounding it with strange script intertwined. The bottom of the page had what she assumed a small poem added to it.

_Let the tree of knowledge be, for those who know good and evil also know of life and death. _

_And those who know that all things must come to an end, must also know how to change what may happen with their knowledge. _

'Pretty,' Coco thought, lightly tracing the outlines of the apple as she read the poem. 'That's actually pretty good. The 'tree of knowledge' like in the bible, huh? Must be some kind of religious scholarly like thing.'

While this type of book usually wasn't her thing, Coco couldn't help but immediately fall in love with the book. After all, it had just a gripping first statement, such a beautiful illustration, and it just seemed to call out to her.

Flipping through the pages, she noticed there still wasn't any title or author listed inside the book. But the more she flipped, the more interesting things popped out. The was a mix of languages and illustrations, math equations and scientific knowledge followed by interesting statements like:

_"The space you may imagine is only that; a construct of imagination. You shall leave a space only when you stop thinking of it as separate from anywhere else."_

_"To open the key to fire is to wish to preserve something for the future. As fire with cauterize a wound, give heat and light, it also serves as protection."_

_"To open space one must also invite that which can change or destroy. When you open a space, you must make the solemn vow to do one or the other, because you cannot leave a space without having done such. Otherwise, you will have never been to the space. And, you will also cease to exist in where you have come from."_

It was quiet an interesting conversation partner that didn't talk.

"That's pretty deep," you commented, closing the book to look at the cover. Jokingly, you decided to keep talking to it. "Are you sure you're in the right place? Seems like somebody should have kept a better eye on you."

On further inspection she saw that the cover's design was also interesting. It was like two interesting pentagrams with seven circles surrounding it, each one with a small design inside of it that she couldn't quiet make out. She also noticed that the book had buckles on either side made for fastening the book shut, most likely so it would be easier to carry and so nothing would fall out of it.

Coco held on the the book, thumbing the spine and just looking at it for a while. It was too big for her bag, or any place to fit in her apartment. She has barely any time to read it next to all of the other hundreds of books and articles for class that she has to read. And it's so heavy, she'd hate to have to lug it all the way to school and then all the way back home again. Plus, she's broke with her last teaching job having finished and no word about a new job on the horizon.

But… it just felt so good in her hands. Smelled so interesting. Sounded so interesting…

"…" She really had no self control. "Alright. I have no self-control. You're coming home with me."

At the registered the lady instantly recognized her and smiled. Coco's a regular, and just about any antique store or bookstore owner knew her by name and what her class schedule was like.

"What do you have here today?" The lady said, she was an older woman with wire rim glasses and faded red hair. A nice woman who was considering asking if Coco wanted a book keeping job.

"Just something I found over at the discount section," Coco said, heaving the heavy book onto her desk. It was so big that she had to carry it with both hands, and when it landed on the desk it caused several stacks of books to shudder and a few to tumble off.

"Oh my!" The woman said, a shocked look followed by a light laugh as she inspected the new purchase. "Well how did that get there? I haven't seen it before."

"I didn't see a price tag," Coco responded, leaning forward onto the desk and smiling up. "But, I'm pretty sure it isn't free, what can I give ya for it?"

The lady enjoyed Coco's southern twang, American accents were always so funny to her. She inspected the book once owner and couldn't peg if she'd ever bought this particular book before. It looked big enough to be an encyclopedia, but she didn't have any clue how it could have walked through here.

"Well," she said, holding it up on it's side before putting it down gently. "I don't really know what this is, but it looks fairly old. I guess I could give you a good price on it since it's new to me."

"How about 20 euros?" Coco smirked.

"Not that good," the lady rolled her eyes and looked over her records. Coco's bought up most of the sales she's had this month, so she didn't mind giving her a good deal. If she could bargain for it. "I'll give it to you for 50."

"50 euros is my grocery list," Coco said, buckling down and leaning forward. She's not leaving without that book now. "How about 35?"

"Right in the middle?"

"It's on the discount shelf," Coco reminded with a hum.

"Alright," she laughed, already ringing up the price. "That seems fair to me. Do you want a bag for it?"

"Nope," Coco said excitedly, reaching for her wallet. "I'm pretty sure it'll just fall through it anyway."

"What are you doing today for Halloween?" She asked, making conversation as Coco handed her two 20 euro notes.

"My school has a Halloween performance at the student theater." Coco wasn't much of a theater person, but she was big on music and art, so she figured it wouldn't be such a bad thing. "A couple of student groups are having performances. I'm with the student publishers group, we've got a musical comedy routine for 20 minutes."

"Oh?" She ducked to count out the change. "What about?"

"About if some demons in hell were trying to put on a musical-theater restaurant to show Lucifer that they aren't so bad and can go to heaven." Coco laughed at the concept. "We wrote it in like, five hours one night after we had all turned in a bunch of term papers and put out our last zine. It's just like five songs with everyone saying puns in between. I'm just really one of chorus singers, but I've got one line where I'm roasting this other demon whose trying to flirt with Lucifer to convince him to try the main course."

"Sounds creative," she laughed, handing over Coco's recite. "You're doing a lot of writing lately, when am I going to be selling your first book again?"

"After I've written my grad thesis," Coco said, giving a half solute as she hoisted the book and held it with one hand against her hip. "I've gotta go now, I'm taking the bus and this book might slow me down a bit."

She waved and left, thinking that while this book was a pain in the ass to carry around, it was definitely something pretty interesting. She used her denim jacket to act as a sling for support and hoisted the book up easier. She didn't have to wait long for the bus, and on it she opened up the book to the back to check out more of it.

'There's gotta be a publishers' note somewhere,' Coco scanned the back pages to see if there was any fine print, author's notes, publisher's notes, acknowledgments or anything. But there was nothing! 'This thing couldn't have just come out of thin air! There's got to be a-'

What caught her eye this time was on the back inside cover. She noticed what at first looked like an old library sign-out card but turned out to be an owners list. It was a small square in the middle of the back that had three names written in cursive script under it with header on the top.

Written are not those who possess knowledge but those who share. And who shares shall be equal to those who possess. One will give, the other will give back, and will forever commit to each other for as long as the writer lives.

The there names were mostly long and unrecognizable, the loopy script bleeding into itself in a faded red pattern. She couldn't make out the top two at all but caught the title 'House of Stollas" on the last one. It was all pretty formal and fancy.

"So it's like a "this person owns this book", eh?" She said, looking at the back.

She had just bought this book, and she wanted to make sure she could keep it. Plus, Coco always liked finding those old library cards. It's always fun to know who read this book last time!

"Alright," she said joyfully, taking out a pen from her bag and scribbling her full name and the date on the page. "This will be an interesting read for awhile. I guess this means I'll be keeping you for a long time."

_Coachella Adelle Sanya, "Coco", October 31, 2020._

She did not know she just signed her own ticket to hell…


	2. Worst deal ever (part 2)

Blitzo stomped around the perimeter of the summouning circle, his "I'm thinking" expression on as he rubbed his chin and considered his options. All the while, Moxxy stood impatiently at the door with his arms crossed and Milly was smiling, waiting for something to happen. The two imps were waiting for their boss's plan on how to retrieve the book from the living world without risking the portal closing and locking them there forever.

(Luna had already left to start drinking at her desk because "this is stupid".)

"Alright," Blitzo finally stopped pacing and clapped his hands in a calm manner before her brought out his idea. "What if, and I'm just putting this out there, we tie a rope to Moxxy and-"

"I'm not going to be bait to find a book out there in the living world!" Moxxy said, growling a little under his breath. "Can we PLEASE think of an idea with involving me potentially getting lost?"

"Well I don't see any other ideas around here!" Blitzo pointed out.

"Because you only suggest ones with me going alone!" Moxxy countered.

"Moxxy, you're both right?" Milly said uncertainly, herself looking confused but a little anxious as well. "I mean, we need someone to stay here and keep the portal open, but we also need someone to go and actually look for the book."

"But we don't even know where it is!" Moxxy pointed out, looking less cross with Milly but still reasonably angry. "We can't just go to the land of the living and try to find it without knowing where it went too."

"Exactly," Blitzo agreed while walking up to the two of them with a condescending smile… no wait, that's just his usual smile. "Which is why Moxxy should go."

"That's not even a reason!"

It was then Luna, irritated her drunken nap was being disturb, growled and yelled from her desk the only reasonable idea the bunch had between them.

"Why don't just jack-fucks just do a reverse summoning?!" Luna shouted, burying her head under several magazines and her tail coming up to cover her ears. "You fucks don't need to open a new portal every time you go. Just use the same portal to suck back the shit you left behind and shut the fuck up already!"

Left with just a growl and what sounded like a trash bin being kicked over, the three imps stood in silence for a minute before looking at one another. They all had slightly clueless expressions plastered on before moving on to realizing that was actually a good idea.

"You can do that!?" Milly asked, her hands held up in disbelief. "And we've just been wasting our time drawing blood circles in the living world and wasting all mah favorite aroma therapy candles!"

"That does seem like a huge waste of time," Moxxy agreed, looking at Blitzo with an only slightly less irritated look on his face. "How come we've never done that before? It seems like it'd be easier than doing the whole summoning over and over again."

"Well I don't like how complicated it all is," Blitzo reasoned, crossing his arm and rolling his eyes. "First you've gotta chant some non-sense about how you've changed the turn of the space in ancient latin, you've gotta do it in a rhythm like it's song, you've gotta pretend like you've learned something. And whenever you do it something already breaks so it's just a hassle!"

"You didn't want to do it… because it's a hassle…" Moxxy felt stoned and slapped himself before letting out a long sigh. Trying to pacify the situation, he decided to swallow his pride and try to get this over with. "Okay! So we can summon the book back here. Great. How do we do it?"

"Well first off, we need to know where the book went." Blitzo left to go to his office and came back with several maps that he laid out on the floor and started marking with a red pen. "Let's, our last target was in the UK. Such a shit country. Anyway, the book must have fallen out around here."

Blitzo circled the general area of London followed by a larger circle around central England and the border of Scotland. Moxxy and Milly watched on, confused on how he came to this conclusion.

"Why would the book just fall anywhere?" Moxxy asked, looking disturbed at the general area that they would have to cover with a reverse summoning. "Wouldn't it go to same place we went to?"

"Not exactly." Blitzo closed his pen and stood up to examine the map. "The thing probably fell down as the portal was closing, so it ended up somewhere else from where we were. And it probably ended up somewhere it could stay hidden but also around living creatures."

"How are sure someone didn't already take the book?" Milly asked. "I mean, it's a pretty big book! And I bet some curious human would think it's alright to pick it up."

"Oh yeah," Moxxy said, realizing they'd have to deal with humans again. "I forgot about that. Those humans sure are nosy! Wouldn't it be a problem if we have to get them involved?"  
"Relax!" Blitzo brushed off their worries with a toothy smile and a wave of his hand. "Humans aren't anything to worry about! This books origins stretch over a millennium, any human who picked up the book couldn't understand it without going insane! Plus, even if some human touched it, they probably wouldn't even know what it is! If there's a human around, the portal will just suck up the book and leave the human alone. After all, it's not like a human's powerful enough to wield the book!"

"Why is it every time you say something like that, I get worried it'll jinx us." Moxxy said, already regretting everything that's about to happen.

-Living world; University of Edinburgh-

"Honey, I'm home!" Coco announced as she opened the door to the student publishing room.

"Coco, how many times do we have to tell you, you don't live here," Jerome, a tall boy with cropped blond hair and glasses deadpanned, not even looking up from his desk as he was typing on the computer. He was a boy from Wellington and had a sharp accent from the same place.

"You're no fun~" Coco mock-whined as she patted Jerome on the back and look over his shoulder. "You're not singing with us today, right?"

"I was just script editing," Jerome snorted through his nose and smirked. "Terrible script by the way. I could tell you wrote the whole thing."

"Hardy-Har har." You hit his shoulder and walked over to your own desk. "I worked on music for your information. Did we get any new assignments yet?"  
"None," Jerome said, leaning over his desk to look over the cluttering piles on your own. "Clean up your desk if you want to find anything."

"I just wanna put my stuff down," she said, holding up her new book a little to show what she had. "This thing is heavy."

"Then go to the practice hall, everyone else already went there. Take your stuff with you." Jerome was silent for a minute before saying something else. "Oh. And your illustration is on page 3 for next month."

"What!" Coco complained audibly and looked visibly annoyed. "I worked for two weeks on that illustration! Theo said he wanted it specially for the front cover!"

"Well it went better with the other illustrations," Jerome turned in his chair and looked up at you. He had that expression that was like he was about to teach you another lesson, which was always annoying seeing as Coco's four years older than him. "If you wanted a cover image, stop making illustrations like comics all the time and stick to editorials."

"I like reviews," Coco said, rolling her eyes and sighing. "Whatever. I'll start something for December later."

"It's two hours to stage time," Jerome reminded you.

"Shit! I was supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Coco started to sprint to the door before stopping and shouting at him. "You're coming to the performance! Right!"

"I'll come later," he called out as she opened the door. "Don't trip and burn the whole stage down!"

"Hardy-Har har…"

'Don't jinx me,' Coco thought, sprinting halfway across the campus and getting to the performing arts hall in her own record time.

She walked up to third floor and entered the practice room designated for the student publishers, her chest heaving and sweat beading along her forehead. The room was filled with twenty some others who were either practicing in pairs, team dancing or just reviewing the script. It was all an impromptu performance, but everyone was putting something in the make it worthwhile.

"You're late," Rene, a curly haired girl from Sri Lanka called out, putting down her water bottle and walking over to you. "And you stink."

"And you look pretty," Coco said sarcastically before walking over to an empty table and dropping everything down. "What do you want to work on before we gotta go down there?"

"Your face," Rene answered, taking hold of Coco's forearm and dragging her over to the nearest window. "What the hell did you bring with you anyway?"

"The stuffs to summon the devil with,' Coco mocked, patting the book one last time before she let her take Coco and do whatever the hell it is she wanted.

Rene had spoken a form of British English in her family her whole life, so it was easy to understand her. Like Coco, people got a kick out of Rene's ambitious features, a mix of several different SouthEast Asian cultures tied with dark skin and even darker curly hair. She was in the business development studies track and often crossed paths with Coco in the halls of the library. Rene and Coco got along, they were good acquaintances.

"We're not doing the third song, they said it'll take up to much time."

"Man~" Coco whined, sitting down on a plastic chair as Rene picked up a pallet of cheap makeup everyone's using for today. "That one's super fun and funny."

"You should have volunteered to play the piano then," Rene said, taking out a brush and beginning to spread bright, glitter covered power around Coco's nose area. "No one else can play like you or Jerome. Why didn't you join the theater group?"

"I'm not good enough. I just play as a hobby." Coco had internally surprise a sneeze. Whether Coco wanted to join or not didn't matter to her anymore. Now, she just played for fun and for kids. "This stuff is going to kill me."

"Don't be a big baby," Rene said, continuing to cover her face before switching to red blush. "Susan wants you to say your lines a bit louder, the sound system isn't working well apparently."

"Great. Are we getting drinks after this?" Coco looked hopeful for a night out. Even if she wasn't great friends with anyone here, she's been looking for every opportunity to change that.

"Around 9 we're all heading down to the student pub. Said there's going to be a costume party there." Rene started on Coco's eyes. "Lovely green eyes."

"Thanks," Coco repressed another sneeze. Her skin was too sensitive for makeup. She wanted to scratch it all over. "You wanna go to the art hall after this? I heard they're having all day horror movie marathon."

"You people and your scary movies," she shook her head, taking out some eyeliner. "No. I don't like horror things. Now stop talking. I'm going to do your eyes."

-Currently in Hell-

"Alright alright alright," Blitzo went over everything just to make sure they were all prepared. "We've got this, right? Blood of the lamb?"

"Black lamb," Moxxy corrected, holding a large paint brush that was covered in dark red, sticky substance and had been painting an impromptu pentagram on the floor. "Done."

"Do we have the candles ready, Milly?" Blitzo asked, looking over at the girl imp.

"Done!" She called cheerfully, lighting the last one and taking in a deep scent. "I love lavender and burdock!"

"Should the reverse summoning alter really smell like an aroma therapy shop?" Moxxy wondered, looking skeptable about all of the candles and the smell of the whole room.

"Hey, who said a demonic act can't smell nice and relaxing?" Blizto reasoned, smiling over at Milly. "Thanks for letting us borrow your collection Milly."

"Blitzo, I printed out your stupid summoning chant," Luna said, walking into the room and handing over three scripts with obvious disinterest. "This place smells like shit."

"Well, the butcher isn't known for having clean meat in stock." Blitzo reasoned, taking the pages from her with a smile. "Thank you, Loonie. Now, everyone knows their jobs, right?"

"We chant around the circle until the book comes through," Moxxy said, rolling his eyes as he threw the brush away.

"Keep everything clean so the book isn't lost," Milly continued.

"Sit in the corner and watch to see if anyone else wants somebody killed today," Luna responded, already leaning in the corner and scrolling on her phone. Only half paying attention.

"Great!" Blitzo cried out, walking to the farther end of the circle after giving the other two a script. "Everybody's ready. Now! Remember! Be sure to get this right or we'll open up something that could possibly kill us!"  
"Remember when I said next time you do something dangerous to please stop with holding information till the last second," Moxxy said, glaring at Blitzo.

"No!" Blitzo said with a smile as he opened up his script. "Alright! Ready! One! Two! A one-two-three-four!"

-Living world, after the concert-

"Nice work today!" Another girl called out as she was leaving the practice room.

The show went well. It wasn't perfect but it was also pretty good with only a few mistakes here and there. The main actors/soloists had done well and only a few of them messed up their lines. The chorus knew they looked ridiculous as everyone had different dancing and singing levels, but everyone on stage and in the audience had had fun while the performance went on.

Now most everyone was leaving, all planning on going home and changing to actual costumes before going out on dates and other later plans for the night.

"Aren't you coming?" Theo asked, putting on his jacket as he looked over at Coco, the last straggler in the room. "We're gonna go down and watch the rest of the performances for an update article on the webpage."

"I'll catch up!" Coco called out, she was holding up a large set piece and walking it towards the supplies closet. "Let me just clean up this place real quick! I don't want the next practice group to feel cluttered."

"Well that's nice of you," Theo smiled before looking awkward. The London boy had been in charge of editing and ordering the magazine, so he sometimes felt responsible for letting people down. "You know… You're a good writer, right?"

"Yeah?" Coco said, putting down the things she was carrying and reaching for a broom.

"Well, if you stopped making so many silly stuffs and worked on actual stories. You might get published more…"

Theo trailed off before turning towards the door. He knew he put that badly, but he wasn't sure whatever other way he could say it.

"You're good, you know?" He tried again. "Just, I'm not really sure what you make is for the student press."

"I don't get it," Coco said, leaning on the closet door. She was holding back a lot, a lot of frustration, but kept cool so this conversation could be over with quickly. "But… I'll try again. Don't worry! This is fun to me."

"Well… thanks then." Theo said, opening the door to walk out. "Good work today! You should be in the performing arts!"

'And you should shut up if you don't know what you're talking about,' Coco thought, biting back her tongue as he shut the door. 'If you think I'm so much suited for performing arts then just kick me out already. Oh wait. You suck at writing so you don't have any say in it.'

Feeling bitter, Coco swept up the room and straighten out everything that was out of place. She found that the dance troupe had left candles out, probably for decorations for Halloween, so she placed them all around the room to make the place look nicer.

After that, she walked over to the corner where the table sat next to an old standup piano to take a rest. Choosing to sit over at the piano, she picked up her new book and sat it own on the bench while she sat down and held her head in her hands. This all felt wrong.

'Why am I even doing this?' She wondered fingering the spine of the book and looking around the faded room. 'I just feel tired now…'

Coco likes writing. She also likes playing music, even if she's not particularly talented at it. But, liking something and knowing you want to do them are two different things. And it doesn't help if you don't feel particularly welcomed in either place. Where Coco believed she should be feeling accomplished and happy after a performance and submission, she just felt empty and lonely now.

It was getting dark now, and harder to see inside the room. Coco rummaged in her bag and found an old lighter she didn't use anymore after one of her old friends stopped smoking. Picking up a candle, she lit it and put it on top of the piano. The atmosphere immediately changed and felt warmer, more satisfying than before.

"Happy Halloween," she called out to nobody, sitting back down at the piano and opening the top of it. "A nice night for a little music, don't you think?"

Looking down at her book, Coco chuckled. Of course she'd be talking to a book. She doesn't have any friends. She hates people… Or, she's scared of them. At least a book wouldn't get her hopes up and disappoint her.

Remembering the structure of one of the songs, Coco practiced a bit and played through one of the songs, humming the melody under her breath. It was harder to sing and play at the same time, but it was just as easy to lose yourself and sense of aggravation while playing a song as it is to forget what bothers you while writing. She played softly, as if anyone could be listening, and structured the song differently form the performance.

She stopped and help still for a few minutes, noticing she was missing a kind of feeling she had been searching for. Coco wanted relief. She felt tight and tense, aggrivated, needy and wanting. Her chest felt tight, not like she wanted to scream but like she wanted to touch something that was missing.

She put her hands down for a second, but then went back up immediately and started improvising chords from a song she remembered. She kept playing until she started singing it. Just a silly song, but she wanted to sing and feel the power she felt when she sang it well.

watch?v=JRw-8tDiPQc

When it was over, Coco let out a long sigh before she laughed to herself for a minute and turned away from the piano.

"God I'm tired of this," she said, shaking her head, her hand falling on the book and leaning back. "I can do better than this. I can do better… I just, just gotta figure out how to try harder."

She leaned back and breathed in the musty air of the room. Somehow, it started to feel warmer than usual, much warmer for a cool autumn night. The air also smelled weird, kind of like a flower shop? But she wanted to blame that on how tired she felt.

Standing up, she put on her jacket and picked up bag, walking back over to the piano and picking up the book. It definitely felt lighter for some reason now. That, and the room now felt hotter, and smelt even more like wood and discount flowers.

'Am I going crazy here?' Coco thought, looking at the one candle on top of the piano. 'Okay, nothing's burning, so why am I sweating now?'

Then, well, scary shit happened.

In one full swoop, all of the candles in the room light up and the room somehow started to feel darker and hotter.

'Holy shit,' Coco thought, pulling the book up tighter to her chest and looking around, trying to edge somewhere out of this crazy situation. 'Okay. Ghost? Demon? Fire fighter? Whoever comes out now, please do not notice me…'

Just as she thought that, strange humming started to sound from under the floor boards.

"…" Panicking, Coco tried to grasp onto the only explanation and excuse she could. "Okay, I didn't do theater in high school so I'm not in a cult. But I did go to an all-girls school and that seems pretty much like a cult… Please don't sacrifice me…"

It took four seconds before she started feeling the whole floor begin to shake. Tossing and turning, throwing her around a new circle of light that felt hot and didn't let her step out of it.

"FUCK! Let me out!" Coco shouted to nobody, holding on tighter and trying not to let her legs fall from under her.

She felt the space around her turning, twisting. It was like being in a carousel but with the speed jacked up to a bullet train's level! Her ankle twisted under her, the pain went unnoticed because she had fallen and landed on the ground where she noticed she now sat in the center of a strange purple glowing pentagram.

'_The space will be joined then separated as two separate places. Conjoined only by knowledge that they are no different until distinguished._'

"What!?" Coco shouted, looking down at the book in her lap. Staring at it confused, it's cover now glowing red and voice coming out from it. "What the- How are you speaking?"

_'Life will determine what is evil, what good, what is fair, what is just. Knowledge will listen and know what separates what from what in response. But shall know the difference as solid as a wall, and separate them by space.'_

"Stop talking in riddles and be a book again!" She shouted, her breath started tighten as the air became hotter and hotter. "This isn't real! This! It's a joke! Stop it! What's going on!?"

'_Share in knowledge is share in life. One will protect the other, and the other will teach the one. When both are one, they will separate in space and return to their own space. If they can remember to be separate…_'

Coco couldn't talk anymore, the hot air had filled her lungs and made her feel like she was chocking. The smell was so strange. It was sweet but dark, it's must was like solid earth and moving hot rock. It felt like she was being cooking alive, inside and out. Sweat that poured down her back started to boil and burn her skin, the entire space becoming unlivable.

'Am I dying?' Coco's thoughts played out. Her body feeling so weak, as if she fell down then she'd know she would never get up again. 'I… I don't want to die… I can't die yet… Please… I don't want to die…'

'_Would you like to make a deal?'_

'What?' Coco listened for the voice that played in her head. A soothing voice that she honestly believed was her own. 'Who… Who are you?'

"_Do you want to live?_'

"Yes. Please. I'll do anything…' Coco bargained. She was telling the truth. Her will to live was strong, she had so much life left in her.

'_I will be your protection,' _the voice said. What felt like cold arms touched her neck and right arm. So soft, they were like a relief pressing in on her._'I promise to share everything I know with you and give you the chance to change space. All I ask, is you share your will to live. And share your own knowledge.'_

'You want to live in me?' Coco asked, feeling herself slip further down. Feeling tired, so tired…

'_I want to live with you._' It said. It felt so comforting, so sweet as it rubbed the back of her neck and pressed close to her right arm. '_Let's be together, and we will both live. Do we have a deal?'_

Coco's bright green eyes began to close. She didn't know if this was real or if the voice was herself dreaming. But, she knew she was dying. She knew she didn't want to die. She didn't want this heat to consume her, she didn't want to know if when she closed her eyes that it would be all dark.

So, she did the only thing she could.

"Yes," Coco whispered, her head tilting down. She saw the cover on her book, the eyes surrounding the apple glowing bright as fire. "Just… please… Don't let me die."

'_I won't let you die darling_,' the sweet voice said. Seeping in and becoming deeper, closer, skin deep. '_I want you to live and learn everything. You have so much to teach me and show me. And I have so much I want to do with you…'_

The next moment, a seeping hot pain began to stab at the back of her neck and into her arm. Like hot metal branding in circles all over. Coco felt the sizzling pain that woke her up and made her stand up again. Energy and strength filling in her as the heat from outside began to flow inside and fill her. A new kind of hot energy seeping in. Cooking her inside before the pain settled and relief flew through.

Suddenly, the heat stopped. The circle stopped spinning and the air began to cool. Coco's eyes flew open and the place she felt she was in was dark and empty. Looking around, she saw nothing and felt nothing and sensed nothing.

"Where…" Coco began, her voice coming out soft and strained.

'_Is where I came from_,' the voice said. As if it was her own thoughts. 'Un-s_pace. It is not an 'it'. There is no 'there' because there is no 'there'. Nothingness can not exist because there is nothing for anything to be compared to. Welcome to the empty. To the truly empty. The 'place'._'

"I don't… I don't want to be here." Coco said, turning around to find something but knowing there was nothing. "Take me back! This isn't right! This is… This is just like being dead!"

'_This place is called 'Ignorance'_,' the voice told. Explaining so softly as if to comfort her before throwing her where they will really go. '_It is filled with nothing. It is empty of everything. There is no truth, because there is no sound. I was formed from the desire to have light. To have sound. To have a friend…'_

"Then lets leave!" Coco shouted, her words lost in the space and only ringing in her ears. She shut her eyes. If she was going to see nothing then she wanted to at least imagine this was all inside her head. "We can go now! I can be smarter than this! I can try harder to make something better!"

'_My first friend brought me out because they were scared of the dark_,' it said. It sounded sad, but also reasonable. '_But every new friend I made didn't believe in me. They only wanted knowledge to explain their ignorance. Not change. So the shape of this space never changed_.'

"It can change?" Coco asked, beginning to feel less scared.

'_A little, every day, every year, with every new person._' The voice sounded even closer now. '_I can't talk. But… I have lived her alone for so long. All I ask, is to live with you. So I don't have to come back here ever again… At least until your final breath is lost._'

"…." Coco wondered about this. The idea that something was asking to live with her forever, to never be completely alone again. But, this place was like the definition of alone. And the thought that anything that was sentient, anything that could speak would be trapped here. Knowing something else could exist outside of it. She couldn't… couldn't just let it die in here. "Of course. You can come just… Where are you?"

'_Don't worry, Coachella. I won't be a bother. Just talk to me more again. Sing for me more again. I love your voice…'_

Before she could ask how it knew her name, she felt a rush of cold air then hot air rush all around her. Her hair flew up and she held her eyes shut tight while squeezing her book even more. She knew she was moving again, a different space. But where? She was scared, what if she opened her eyes and she was somewhere even worse. But what could be worse than nothing? Than emptiness? Than eternal silence.

"What the fuck?" A voice in the background said. It sounded confused. "Who the hell is this asshole?"

Strange. There's… more people now. Fluttering her eyes open and blinking her eyes rapidly, Coco saw she wasn't in nothing anymore.

Now, she was standing in the middle of circle that smelled like dried blood in a room that smelled like old lady candles. And… she was surrounded by three red demons and a werewolf standing the corner dressed like a problem child.

Everyone was staring at her in shock (except the wold who looked vaguely disinterested) and she was staring at everyone else in equal shock and awe. Then, she looked down at her book and noticed it was back to normal and realized something had gone horribly horribly wrong with her life.

"Uh…" Coco tried to think of something smart to say but just said random crap. "Well… this mildly unpleasant…"


	3. You're in Hell Welcome to the party!

It was the longest silence Coco had ever experienced where she was relatively sure no one knew what was going on. All she knew was she was standing in the middle of a circle, she was sweating, the air smelt like an old folks' home fucked a Bath and Body store, and there was some really weird cosplay shit going down right now.

'… Please tell me I'm hallucinating,' Coco wanted to make the most logical explanation so she could pretend none of this was happening. She touched her forehead for a moment and felt that, no, she wasn't as hot as before so heat stroke was crossed off the list. She also didn't have a bump on her head. 'Am I old enough to have dementia yet?'

Sounding far too internally comfortable for dementia to be a legit explanation, she instead decided that maybe it would be a good idea to figure if these… people were real?

"… Um. Hello?" Coco started, hoping that breaking the unbearable silence would make her feel more confident. It actually didn't make her feel any better…

"Hi!" The cheery girl looking one responded.

"Milly!" The other short red one with black and white stripped horns said under his breath, looking stressed as he didn't move his eyes off of Coco. He looked more scared of her than she was of him. "Don't talk to it! Maybe it's dangerous…"

"Oh fuck it," the tall one said, slapping his forehead before looking over at Coco with an angry look. "What the fuck are you doing in my summoning circle!"

Coco jumped a little at that and immediately began to sweat. Summoning circle? What? Like a portal? Like a Star Trek teleporting thing? What the hell, are these nerds or cult members?

On further inspection, she saw all three of the people around the circle looked only vaguely like a person. Their height was about that of a human, the two smaller ones being only a little taller than you while the other definitely towered, and their facial features were similar to regular people. But, their skin… is red… and definitely not painted… And those horns look too real to be crafted… Are those claws? And… tails…

'I'm surrounded by actual demons.' The realization struck her too simply, as if the shock wouldn't make her want to pass out. 'Holy fuck, what are a bunch of demons doing here?'

And that wasn't even the weirdest part yet.

"Uh, hello!" The tall one said impatiently, now resting his hand on his side and giving a side glare from his corner. "It's very rude to ignore people. You kind of just ruined our reverse summoning, so what the fuck are you doing inside my property?"

"Did we do this right?" The short one with stripped horns said, looking down now at what looked like a script and reading through it again. "The directions didn't say anything about a carrier. Unless we picked something else up by accident."

"What were you doing in the living world by yourself?" The cheery looking one asked. She didn't seem clueless, just curious. Seeing as this was all new to her.

"…" Coco stayed completely silent for a moment before looking around the room quickly with just her eyes. It was dark, there were candles everywhere, but it was obvious to her that she was standing inside an office room with all the blinds shut and impromptu cult-shit going down. "… What are you guys doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." The tall one said, crossing his arms and pointing over at her lightly. "You know going to the land of the living is a top offense! What kind of idiot creep are you?"

"Sir, they could say the same thing about us," the shorter one pointed out.

"But we got permits for that," the spunky one said, then turning to the taller one. "Right?"

"Sort of," he brushed off before looking back to Coco. "Look, we didn't go to all this trouble just to bring back a stupid little imp. So what the fuck have you messing around with and have you seen an impossibly uncontrollable source of magic stored in a book?"

"Again with the details…" The small complained, smacking himself and sighing.

It took a few seconds for Coco to realize that these guys weren't acting the way they should if they actually meant to kidnap a human. In fact, the way they were talking to you…

'Oh my god,' Coco's eyes went wide for a minute and she almost had a heart attack. 'They think I'm a demon too!'

Whether this was a good thing or not was irrelevant. There was still too much shit that hasn't been answered, like how the fuck is this all happening?

"She doesn't smell like an imp," a random wold girl in the corner said, looking up from her phone to just stare blankly at Coco. "How the fuck did you shit heads mess this up and pull out this random dick bag?"

"HOLY FUCK IT'S AN ACTUAL FURRY!" Was the first thing that spilled out of Coco's mouth.

With that, Coco lost all feeling her legs and tumbled outside the circle on the floor. She was now officially a disheveled mess. Her jacket was half off her shoulders, her bag was half opened, she noticed her devil horns were tilted so she took one hand to quietly fix them, and the book rested on her lap.

It was then that Blitzo, Moxxy and Milly all saw the book actually did come through!

"The book!" Moxxy said, automatically turning around.

"Haha!" Blitzo excitedly did a fist pump and smiled. "I knew I could do it! Okay, you little poacher. Hand over the book back to us and we'll let you leave this office mostly alive~"

Coco went wide eyed at that. 'Mostly'? What the fuck. They just randomly pulled her from one place to another and now they want her book and to possibly torture her? She saw the looks on all of their faces, they were all cold and too eager to cause harm. Something they obviously knew how to do well and enjoyed doing.

Taking the initiative, Coco carefully began to stand up. She was slightly off-balance and unsteady from shock and fear, and the three other demons slowly creeping towards her did not help. She held the book up carefully with both hands in front of her chest and they all stopped. Now, it felt way too much like a Mexican stand off that Coco forgot to bring a gun too. She looked around everywhere. The was very limited furniture to hid behind and only one window that looked liked like it was pretty old and fairly close to her.

"…" Weighing her options, Coco decided to do something stupid. "Catch."

She chucked the book over her head and then threw it straight threw the window! The three demons were momentarily distracted by the breaking glass that Coco slipped by and quickly jumped out the window to follow it as well.

"Hey!" Moxxy shouted after seeing the girl jump before he could get his thoughts together. "She's getting away!"

"Then we gotta stop her!" Blitzo shouted out the obvious.

Coco barely overheard all of this as she had crashed on to an old, rusted out fire escape that was too stories down from the window. She was lucky it had broken her fall, but when she pulled herself up she felt the whole metal frame begin to shake.

"Oh fucking," she couldn't finish that statement because just then the railing tore off of the brick wall and the whole thing tumbled to the ground. "CHRIST!"

When the three demons got to the window together, they saw nothing but rubble bellow them that lead to a trash alley. Nothing could be made out since it was so dark and the sounds from the surrounding Imp City made it too hard to distinguish anything.

"She's gonna get away with the book!" Milly said.

"Why didn't you do anything!" Moxxy shouted at Luna.

"I didn't know it was my job to fix all of your screw ups," Luna said, rolling her eyes and glaring over at Moxxy.

"Let's save the regular staff insulting for later!" Blitzo growled before gesturing to the door. "Come on! We gotta go and get them!"

Coco groaned lightly and picked herself up by her shoulders. When the railing fell, she landed in a pile of trash next to the dumpster and ended up with only a few bruises. While she gestured around to find her bag, she instantly grabbed on to the book that was laying on top of her bag right next to her.

'They're after this thing.' She held up the book close to her to look at it again. It wasn't glowing red anymore and seemed as normal as any big heavy book as before. 'What do they want this for? Where did this book even come from?'

Not taking the time to sit around and be found, Coco got up and tried to start running. But as she began moving she realized her ankle hurt as if she had sprained it!

'GUH! Must have happened when I was in the circle,' Coco remembered being tossed and turned, possibly rolling her ankle in the process. 'No! I gotta get out of here!'

Carefully limping over the fallen railing and trash, Coco pulled herself through the alley and on to the closest side street where she began to run as carefully as she could away from the scene.

'People,' she thought, looking around for any sign of life and any direction that would take her to the closest population. 'I need people! I gotta find someone, get out of here and find some people before those red demons find-'

She had been limp-running for maybe fifteen minutes before she stumbled onto a busy intersection that… made her realize she hadn't been paying attention to the color scheme of this whole city.

She saw no 'people' but more of the strange, altered detentions of disfigured demon beings all walking around. They wore clothes that were the most extreme versions of themselves and were all interacting with each other in the strangest ways possibles. The buildings and signs on the buildings only looked vaguely normal, and on closer look she saw they were mostly like bad puns for either drugs, sex positions or some kind of violent act. There were ads for normal stuff followed by some of the most extremely uncomfortable looking things, being hawked by other demons. The smell was a mixture of humid air, blood, pollution, and something that reminded her of China.

She realized she was no longer in Edinburgh anymore. Hell, she realized she probably wasn't on Earth anymore.

"Oh fucking hell," Coco slapped herself on the face and inwardly groaned as the worst realization swept over her. "I'm in fucking Hell…"

"Hey!" The familiar voice of one of the demons rang out behind her a few blocks back. "There she is! Get her!"

Coco ducked into the nearest crowd of people and quickly started to mush into the crowd of demons like she was a part of a flock of sheep. And it was a good thing she did too because she heard the sound of a shotgun firing before it hit some random demon across the street in the face!

'HOLY SHIT THEY'VE GOT WEAPONS!" Coco mentally screamed as she instinctively started to move with the crowd to get as far away from here and them as possible. 'Fuck me. Fuck this. Fuck everything.'

Blitzo got to the place in the street ahead of the other three, standing there and scanning the area to see he shot yet another not-innocent bystander/druggie.

"Damnit," he growled, going up to the demon and picking him up to look and badger him for information. "You seen a small, weird looking imp around here? Which way she went?"

The guy didn't respond either because he was dead or too far out to comprehend anything. Or maybe just getting shot in the face fucks everybody up?

"Goddamn it another useless one," Blitzo complained, letting him fall to the ground and standing up again to see the other three catch up to him. "The fuck is taking you all so long! We lost her again!"

"Sir, it would have been better to have kept her in the office instead of scaring her away." Moxxy managed to get this out through heavy breaths. He really needed to start upping his cardio.

"Sweetie, you should sit down for a minute," Milly said, patting his back before looking back up at Blitzo. "Can't we just do another reverse summoning portal? It worked last time!"

"And get even more exposure that we possibly lost one of the most dangerous artifacts in Hell?" Blitzo sarcastically offered. "Uh-uh, Milly. We're gonna do this the old fashioned way. With a gun and a hound."

"I can't smell her out like this," Luna complained, looking angrily at Blitzo as he tried to get her to follow a sent. "Shit, it's enough that that trash covered all of her human scent, now I can tell the difference between one demon and another!"

"Well we've gotta try something!" Blitzo shouted, gesturing outwardly around the whole city. "We've gotta find that little book thief and cut off her arms before she-"

"Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute!" Moxxy interrupted before standing up straight and looking at Luna. "What do you mean her human scent?"

"We did just pull her out of the living world," Milly suggested. "Maybe all that human scent's from there?"

"No," Luna said, crossing her arms and looking down at them aggravated. "She smells completely human. The book pulled her threw. I also smelt some kind of curse or whatever, not like I care really."

"Wait," Moxxy panicked, already starting to sweat. "So you mean… we pulled a human out of the living world and now we lost her in the middle of imp city on a Friday?"

Everyone there stood there and slowly started to panic because they just fucked up so much that it's inconceivable that anyone could ever fuck up worse than this.

"This is stupid," Luna said, turning around to go back to the office. "I'm gonna wait until the dumb human decides to come back."

This left the three of the standing there weighing their options. Blitzo stood there slightly confused, pondering the impossibility of this along with his options. Milly stood worried, listing all of the ways a human could die in the middle of hell and all of the impromptu genocide that would spring from willed up excitement. And Moxxy was going down this list of all of ways they would get punished when anyone finds out what they've done and how this all happened…

"Alright, look," Blitzo said, summoning everyone's attention and straightening out himself. "Whatever the fuck is going on, that girl's got our book. And we gotta find her before some other asshole decides to kill and eat her."

"But how are we going to find her, sir?" Moxxy asked, still relying on his formal sense of office politics even though he was exasperated. "Imp City is huge! She could already be across the neighborhood or even being stabbed at this moment!"

"That's not the positive mindset I want to see from you all today!" Blitzo scolded Moxxy, pumping up his chest and resting into a relaxed smile. "Now, what we need is an upbeat spirit and I'm sure we'll conquer it no time! So what if we've lost one measly little human in a sea of demons! We can find her before night time, no problem!"

"But sir, how are we suppose' to find her out here alone?" Milly asked, holding out her hands for ideas as she looked concerned. "Without Luna, we can't sniff her out on our own!"

"Come on, Milly!" Blitzo said cheerfully. "It can't be that hard to find one measly little human out here. She sticks out like a sore thumb! Besides, there's three of us and only one of her. She can't get too far out here on her own!"

"And what do you purpose we do with her when we find her, sir?" Moxxy asked, glaring over as he found this entire situation impossible. "We can't just let her go in here or back to the living world. Do you suggest we kill her and risk getting exposed for having a human enter Hell without going through standard protocol!"

"Mox! Calm down!" Milly was immediately by his side, prepared to either comfort or smack him. Whatever seemed more necessary.

"Shhhh~~ shhh~~" Blitzo mockingly tried to comfort Moxxy by grabbing him from behind and carefully rubbing his horns. "Now, now Moxxy. No need to get your tail in a knot. We'll take good care of the human and make sure she leaves hell remembering nothing about what happened here or our little book fiasco."

"Stop touching my horns," Moxxy ducked out of his embrace and walked back beside Milly.

"How are ya' gonna' do that?" Milly asked.

"A simple, easy spell from the book that'll cover everything." Blitzo said before turning away as his expression started to become more twisted. "I'll make sure this event is only a nightmare that constantly haunts her in the back of her mind and slowly drives her insane until she's resting unpeacefully in a grave. When I get my book back, I'm gonna make sure she regrets ever picking it up and send her back to wherever the hell on Earth is!"  
"Florida?" Milly asked.

"What? No! I meant… well… is she from Florida?" Blitzo returned back to normal. "That would be a bit ironic."

"We really need to get a background check agent for our targets." Moxxy sighed, pinching the skin in-between his eyes for emphasis. It had become a pain trying to distinguish them all from one another.

-In another part, but not so far away, of Hell-

Coco barely got out of that crowd alive. She had been squished, squeezed, most definitely groped and suffocated about seven times before she managed to squeeze past into an open clearing. From there, she limped her tired ass to the closest rest stop that looked like a restaurant. Not willing to take the risk of actually talking to someone or trying any food from here, she snuck back behind all the strangers and found her way to a public bathroom. Blessed with the small luck that it was actually open and unlocked, she swept herself in then took what looked like a 'Bloody Floor' sign and used it to stop the door shut from the inside.

'This is the worst fucking possible thing to ever happen in an eternity of bad things that could ever happen.' Was the solemn statement that summed up this whole past hour.

The bathroom was as gross as any regular public bathroom but with more blood in it than usual. The smell was awful, but could mostly be ignored if you didn't look over at the toilet. Coco wanted to crumple down on the floor and have a good screaming fit, but she didn't want to risk getting HIV by touching anything in here. So she settled and went over to the sink to see if the running water looked potable. She was honestly surprised to see the water looked clean and didn't smell like natural gas was pumping through it.

'Thank… whoever for small miracles.' She really had to start thinking things through now that she was in a place that defied all logic and had her questioning her spirituality again. 'God might not exist but at least I know Hell exists.'

Coco carefully washed her face under the running water. With the day she was having, she needed to feel any bit cleaner and calmer than she did before. It was not surprising to her that Hell was both obscenely hot and humid. It made her hair frizz her more than usual and the too formal-like attire to stick to her from sweat.

Thumbing through her hair, Coco looked for the best way to wear the devil horns. Seeing as they were the only thing helping her to pass as an imp aside from the fact her eyeliner was starting to drip down and make an interesting eye pattern. As she messed with her hair, she noticed the right arm side of her dress shirt had long rip extending from her shoulder to her wrist. It must have happened when she was falling on the fire escape from earlier.

"Damnit," Coco cursed under her breath. She was beyond the normal reach of exhausted and had landed at feeling totally out of sorts as she moved to examine her shirt. "As if I don't look crappy enough already. Come on, just give me one less thing to-"

She stopped as soon as something even more disturbing caught her eyes. Running down from her bicep and ending at the inside of her wrist was a huge, strangely organized tattoo that… seemed… to be kind of be moving?

Coco stopped and stared at her arm. What was this?

When she looked at the mirror she also noticed something at the edge of the back of her neck. Her left hand quickly flew back and she immediately felt the outline of a circle like a branding on the back of her neck.

Her heart stopped for a moment and her eyes went wide.

"I've got… a tattoo…" she began before looking down at her arm. "I've got some kind of demon marking on me… And I don't even remember getting it…"

Panicking, she ripped open the sleeve of her shirt to look closer and recognized the design on the top half. It was the same illustration as on the cover of the book. Two intersecting pentagrams with an apple in the middle and seven empty circles surrounding it. Only one of the circles had a red ring around it like it was outlined in red ink.

There was strange script and eyes that fell down from her arm in a red and black pattern until it stopped at the inside of her wrist. There, at her wrist, was what looked like a very simple compass like tattoo that just had one thin hand pointing straight across from her. When she looked over in that direction, she saw the book lying there by itself next to her bag and discarded denim jacket.

"What are you," she said, picking up the book and immediately flipping through it. "No notes. No table of contents. No nothing! It's like somebody started writing you in some insane, crazy way and just left it that way!"

The book had nothing inside it to explain itself or any of the reasons why this was happening. Coco closed the book and let out a long sigh before looking at the cover of it.

"Look," she said, staring at the circles and studying it. "I know I'm… talking to a book. But. If you can… point me in the right direction? Maybe a page to explain where I am and what I should do? That would be really helpful."

As if the request itself was an order, the book promptly opened itself and flipped to an exact page where a bookmark laid. Coco stood there and gave several hard blinks before she could compressed words again.

"… I really shouldn't be surprised by this." She said to herself, leaning in to look at the book. "Crazy shit seems to be happening for a reason today."

Swallowing the logical side of her brain that was screaming, she indulged her natural curiosity and started reading. It was less of essay and more of map of the general area. In it, she saw the layout of what was titled "Imp City" and all of her moves since she was summoned here. As she thumbed past that page, she found another page that had directions for both 'summoning' and 'reverse summoning' things to "The Living World".

"No wonder they want this book back," she said, closing it and buckling it shut. Feeling like it was dangerous to have this book out in the open now, she quickly stuffed into her bag and let out a deep sigh. "Alright, this is some… crazy shit. Shit. I've got… to figure out… a plan. What to do next?"

Coco's mind was empty and blocked from making ideas. All of the stress and exhaustion made it impossible to think along with how thirsty and hungry she's become. She realized how impossible it was for her to even get this far on her bum ankle without getting found out.

'If there was someone else here I could talk to this would be so much easier to deal with,' she told herself, trying to think of anyway to get out of this mess and find a way back home. 'Just someone who could help me get out of here and make a decision about what to do next.'

She stopped when she remembered that strange voice from earlier that had been talking to her when she was still in the summoning circle. Where did it go? She definitely didn't feel like there was anything really inside her that was ready to talk, but then she looked at her arm and realized that must have something to do with it.

"Okay, let's see." She went to the mirror and looked all over her arm at the tattoo, its figure a mix of circles and squiggly symbols that sometimes looked like script and sometimes looked like eyes. "If you left a calling card for me somewhere around in here, now would be a really good time to show up…"

Coco searched for a few minutes until she was guided down by the lines and looked again at her inner wrist. The circle did look like some kind of odd compass, except that it didn't have the usual north-south places. Instead, the design looked even more ominous. On one side of the compass was an apple image and the other was also an apple, except it was inked in black. Then at the top was a small Y and at the bottom was an N. There was a needle that was right now pointing at the top, but it didn't seem like it was actually pointing at anything. Weird, since earlier it looked like it had been pointing towards the book.

'This is a weird kind of design to have going on,' Coco touched the compass outline on her wrist and followed along the images. It just felt like skin to her, which was surprising since the whole thing should feel like it doesn't belong there. 'Wonder what this thing is supposed to mean? Let's see, the book sometimes talks about space and knowledge, soooo…. What could a compass be used for?'

Just as she was scanning her wrist, the door began banging and being pounded on from the other side! The sound of rough fists on the door made her jump up.

"What the fuck," a deep voice resonated behind the door and growled. "HEY! Hurry it the fuck up in there! Some people need to take a shit!"

"And shoot up some shit!"  
"And fuck some shit!"

Between the yelling and what could all possibly be read as death threats, Coco was now completely terrified. There looked like only two options on how to get out of this: One was go out the door amongst the demons, and the other was crawl out the small window that was near the top of the room. She had to make a decision now!

Just as she began sweating more bullets, she noticed down on her wrist something was moving. When she held it up and looked down, she saw the needle had now moved and was pointing towards the door! It was moving a little in a motion like it was being shaken.

'Okay, definitely not normal,' Coco freaked out a bit then shook her head. She could only get scared by one thing at a time now, and she chose to be more afraid of the the demons currently trying to beat down the door. 'Never mind! This is not good. I gotta get out of here now! I bet that door won't even stay up for another minute…'

At that thought, Coco noticed a fine line had swooped up from the needle and pointed up towards the Y. She stared at it for a moment, before coming to some logical thoughts.

"Um, so I guess Y means yes," she said, still looking at her wrist. The line did not move from the spot. "So, okay. Should I try to open the door?"

The line immediately swung down and landed on N.

"Okay," Coco calmed down a lot after seeing that. "Then… Should I go out the window?"

Then the line swung back up to Y.

Coco stood there for a few more seconds and listened to the thundering sounds of even more bangs and beatings on the door. So, a decision had been made.

"… Alright then."

Coco had to stand up on the toilet in order to push out her bag, the book and then pull herself up to get through. The window was small, and it was awkward to crawl through, but she was able to wiggle herself through when she realized how more afraid she was of other demons than uncomfortable.

'Really hope there's a soft landing,' was Coco's last thought as she fell through.

Her luck was strong, but not strong enough for it to actually be pleasant. She landed inside a dumpster, this time luckily on a soft pile of trash bags. The bags were soft and squishy, she felt something moist inside. The smell meant nothing anymore. It was unpleasant. But mild compared to the pain in her foot and the sense of complete and total disappointment that comes from feeling actually glad that you feel in the trash.

"… My life… is absolute trash…" Coco responded, her exhaustion finally catching up with her as she found herself in a dumpster for the second time today. She had somehow found herself in hell, had a tattoo randomly appear on her, can remember a distinct non-imagined voice, is being hunted by demons. "All of this hell for a fucking book…"

She laid there for a good five minutes until the smell of moist, hot trash became unbearable. It was then she knew she had to figure out something to do.

"…" She held up her wrist and looked at the compass. So far, it was the only thing she had to bounce ideas off of. No one to talk to. No one to ask her what she thought. And only one absolutely stupid idea left. "I should go back there now, shouldn't I?"

The little line came back and pointed back up to Y. The needle had stopped moving and just pointed across the dumpster, where Coco saw that both her bag and book had landed. Sighing, Coco tried to carefully get up and grab her things, then threw them out of the dumpster and jumped out as well. The landing hurt her foot a little bit, but by now she was used to the pain.

She stopped and looked back down at her cursed-wrist-compass (that she was currently trying to find a shorter name for). She gave it a slightly irritated glance before now asking a new question.

"There's no way you could somehow show me how to get back to that place?"

At that, the thicker needle moved from where it was pointing towards the book, and then firmly pointed across towards the street.

"…" Coco decided, if crazy shit was going to keep happening, she would at least follow the thing closest to her beating arteries. "Okay. Let's see where this takes me."

-Back at IMP-

Luna had been sitting in the office alone for an enjoyable hour. She checked her emails, ate Moxxy's lunch, ate Blitzo's lunch, drank the rest of her lunch, and has been idly flipping through a back issue of Hell Hound Monthly.

She had been pleasantly bored until she started to smell something horrible.

"What the fuck," Luna said, looking around alarmed, what the fuck could be making that smell all of a sudden!

It was even worse as the smell seemed to be getting closer and closer, more intense with the second. Just then, the door opened and the human girl came into sight. A ragged, tired sight who looked completely exhausted and one her of feet swollen.

And she stank. Horribly.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Luna shouted, chucking a box of tissues at her, the smell so unbearable and anger inducing. "You smell like shit! You're gonna make me barf!"

"I don't like it either!" Coco shouted back, the tissue hitting her on top of the head but that didn't really bother her compared to every single thing that's happened tonight. "You think it's bad! It's not my fault trash is the only safe thing here!"

"Go take a fucking shower!" Luna shouted, covering her entire snout and pointing behind here. "I can't smell this shit any longer!"

"You think I'm gonna just gonna do that!?" Coco said outraged. "I'm not a giant idiot!"

She withheld "you bitch" only by actually biting her tongue. Luna then threw a sort of towel at her and turned.

"UGH! Satan! Just take a shower! I'll get you some of Blitzo's old clothes!" Luna said, at her honest last straw. "God! Just take a fucking shower already!"

Coco couldn't bring herself to say 'no' again. She didn't even bother consulting the compass. One can only stand their own trash soaked stink for too long before they'll take any measure to feel clean. The shower place was just a simple office bathroom with two open doored stalls for taking quick showers. It looked like the place was used a lot, judging by the strange red streaks all around the drainage hole and on the walls. But… Coco wasn't caring about that right now.

She was in the shower for a good 45 minutes, finally having a something to make her relax under. She couldn't lie, the shower was a great thing right then. She used every kind of soap she could find there, shampoo, conditioner, body wash. She even found herself humming to herself a little through it.

She was not surprised to see Luna had left her bag alone, the book sitting in there obviously left alone next to her jacket and other items. She was surprised to see her clothes gone, most likely thrown away. And instead, replaced with a couple of different oversized outfits, plus a pair of regular tights. She ended up settling on wearing a long dress shirt (obviously the tall guys), the black tights, a red tie tied around her waist like a belt, and a small black waist coat jacket that fit fairly well. They all had strange red steam-punk like designs over them, but they looked pretty snazzy.

Coco walked back out into the same room as before and stood for a moment looking at Luna. Now that she was clean, she wasn't sure what else she should do. It's not like this particular… demon had been exactly awful to her earlier. But, she didn't know if it was a good idea to be hanging around here like this either.

"The other idiots should be back soon," she said, not bothering to look up again. "Since you don't smell like absolute shit, I guess you can wait here."

"Oh, um," Coco looked awkward before blushing. "Thanks…?"

She took a seat near the wall with the windows and sat quietly. As she looked around, Coco realized this place looked sort of like any regular small office building. Although, the place really just reminded her of one of those detective offices from those 1950's pulp fiction novels.

"So uh," Coco started, feeling like talking would make this feel less awkward. "What kind of office is this?"

"IMP," Luna said, not feeling awkward at all. "Immediate Murder Professionals. A hit agency."

"Oh," Coco immediately felt more awkward and nervous.

"You should keep that curse mark covered," Luna said, still not looking up from her magazine. "It won't go away, but it'll be one less stupid thing to look at."

"Oh! Uh!" Coco saw the tattoo was showing more and pulled the sleeve back down to her wrist. She still had the compass showing, but figured most of it should be covered. "Right. Sorry…"

"Cute horns," Luna commented. "Buy them a dollar shop?"

"Yep," Coco said, leaning back. "At least they fooled all of Hell."

After that, Luna said nothing and so did Coco. Luna kept switching between reading her magazine and scrolling on her phone, while Coco went to flipping through the book again and trying to read some random pages. While she was able to follow some parts more than others, the whole thing was actually overall unreadable. They stayed like this for about an hour before the other three imps came back in.

"All fucking day…" The tall one said, throwing the shot gun over to a corner of the room and dragging behind him the other two exhausted looking imps. His expression was tired, haggard and annoyed as he quietly slumped past the chairs leaving Coco noticed. "We searched all over the city and came up with nothing!"

"Let's face it sir," the small boy one with stripped horns said, also walking over and then leaning against the wall. "She's lost out here. Or we lost here. Either way, the book is gone…"

"Can't we just call someone to help us find her?" The girl asked, standing next to the boy and then pressing her head to his shoulder. Her long salamander like tail falling on his feet as she sighed. "I'm sure she'll turn up with the book somewhere…"

"And tell them what, Milly?" The tall one said bitterly, turning with obvious exasperation with his back to Coco and looking at the other two angrily. "What? That we lost an ancient, powerful book and then summoned a human girl who then ran away with said book? You realize how that makes us look like fucking idiots! Or how much shit we'll get from Stollas and all those other assholes once they find out what we've been messing with? We'll be lucky to get out alive without out tails chopped off! Not to mention IMP falling completely under!"

Coco just sat there quietly wondering how none of them have noticed she was here yet. She looked over to Luna and gave a questioning expression, to which Luna help up one finger to tell her to be patient.

"So you think there's nowhere else you can find her," Luna said half heartedly, not putting much effort into riling him up.

"Oh, like she'd just show up here after all of this!" He continued to complain, obviously going into an irrational panic-anger episode. "Like she'd just waltz in here, book and all, and just present herself after we spent all fucking day looking for her! Because that would be just the lucky break I'm looking for right now!"

"So you don't think there's anyway she'd come back here?" Luna prompted, starting to give a small, smug little smirk.

"Oh, I wish!" He formally said, crossing his arms over his chest and starting to pout before sighing. "I'd give anything to have her come through those doors right now! No murder. No torture. Hell! I'd even say nice things if it meant that book would be back here!"

"So you'd do anything?" Luna continued to prompt, now starting to smirk even wider. "Even send her back to the Living World? Not bother her ever again?"

"Ha! That's not even the half of what I'd agree to!" Just to that he began to lean over his desk and bend in a bit. "Dinner! Movie! Gold! Fuck! If it would get her to come back here with the book, I'll bend over, pull down my well tailored pants and let her go ahead and-"

"AHEM."

Coco coughed loudly to interrupt the tall one before he said anything she'd regret hearing later. Luna had already helped set up the terms of his agreement, so she was satisfied now with making her presence known.

All three imps stopped looking tired and immediately perked up and looked over at Coco. The flash of surprise seemed etched on their faces as they had all stopped making coherent thoughts through the mixture of exhausted relief. Coco, deciding it would be a good idea to introduce herself, stood up from her seat and walked a few steps over. She held the book in one hand by her side and cleared her throat be turning to look up at them.

"Um, hello." Coco gave a small, polite smile and took a deep breath. If she was going to make a deal with a demon, she should probably tell them her name. "Um, I'm Coachella. People call me Coco for short. Um, I want to go home. So, if you take me back home and promise never to hurt me, my family or any of my family down here, then you can have this book back."

Coco held the book out in front of her as a peace offering, proof she wasn't lying and that she had also heard the whole thing earlier. The first one to speak up was Luna.

"How do you know if you've got family down here?" She asked, looking skeptical.

"Half my family's white," Coco deadpanned. "There's gotta be a few of them down here."

He held the book out for another minute, seeing the other two imps walk up to the tall one and stand next to him on either side. Seeing as he looked like the boss, Coco gestured the book closer and he took it carefully from her. Slowly opening the book, he scanned to make sure everything seemed right and that nothing was missing along with the other two. When the girl saw that everything looked fine, she turned and smiled at Coco.

"Oh thank you!" The girl imp cheered, running up and hugging Coco tightly while lifting her off the ground. "I'm just so glad everyone's here and safe! You are such a life saver, sweetie!"

"Milly, put her down!" Moxxy said, looking up at Coco who was now starting to turn a deep shade of red like the two of them. "Can't you see you're suffocating her? We're not supposed to kill her anymore."

"Oh!" Milly put her back down on the ground and smiled at her. "Sorry 'bout that, sweetie!"

"It's okay…" Coco breathed in deeply and slumped over a bit as she took in air. Now delirious from the head rush, she somehow decided she wanted to know their names. "I'm okay… Um, you're?"  
"Milly!" Milly said, smiling brightly. "I'm an employee here! That over there is Luna-"

"Don't care," Luna said, now paying attention to her phone again.

"This is Moxxy-"

"…" Moxxy just stared with a half glare and didn't say anything.

"And this is Blitzo!"

"The 'o' is silent," Blitzo said, still flipping through the book for some reason.

"I didn't think there was an 'o' in it…" Coco said confused, turning to look at the two other imps. "So, you think you can send me back home? Back to the… uh, Earth?"

"Of course!" Milly snapped happily with a proud grin. "We do it all the time! Now that we've got that book back, everything can go smoothly!"

"If we hadn't lost the book in the first place none of this would have ever happened," Moxxy looked at Coco lightly for a second before crossing his arms and giving her a careful glare. "You know you'll never have to speak of this ever again, right?"

"Oh, I plan on never remembering a single thing that's happened today for the rest of my life," Coco assured him that this event has been completely traumatizing and she planned on repressing every single minute of it.

But even with this, Blitzo seemed completely focused on the book and wasn't even looking up from it. Coco noticed that he wasn't looking for the directions on summoning circles that were all near the front. He was now scanning all of the pages near the back with such careful interest that it was freaking her out a little. Coco was about to ask why this was taking so long when Blitzo's expression changed to something dark.

"Okay, you did something stupid." Blitzo told Coco, dropping the book to the ground before he pointed a finger at her. "You made a deal with the fucking book!"  
"What?" Coco asked, now both scared and confused. Did she hear him correctly.

"Alright, where's the curse mark?" Blitzo said, walking over to her and pulling her arm over, instantly finding the tattoo and pulling the sleeve all the way up.

"Hey!" Coco tried yanking her arm back but found that demon strength was no joke as she tried to pull out of it. "Let me go! What are you doing!"

"The fucking shit," Blitzo then pulled her up off the ground and held her arm up in the air as he began examining the whole arm length tattoo. "It's a fucking seal! You made a fucking deal so tight it's locked in your fucking skin!"

Coco dangled from the ground awkwardly and didn't move because she didn't know how to react. What was he talking about? What's happening?

"What the hell is that?" Moxxy walked over to Blitzo and looked up at her arm. "I thought you said the book wouldn't make a deal with a human?"

"It won't but it looks like the human decided to write her name in it and offer it a deal," Blitzo said, glaring at Coco. "What the hell! You just pick up any old random demon item off the street and decide to put your name on it?"

"Hey! I bought it in a book store!" She said, her arm starting to hurt as she dangled over the floor. "Can you put me down now?"

Blitzo let her stand on the ground again but didn't let go of her arm. Now both Milly and Moxxy were looking over at the tattoo and examining it.

"That's one complicated seal mark," Milly said, turning her head to look at Blitzo. "How are we supposed to send her back to the Living World with this?"

"We can't," Blitzo said annoyed.

"WHAT!?" Coco shouted, trying to take her arm back but couldn't. "What do you mean you can't? I thought you said you could open up a portal!"  
"We can but you can't leave!" Blitzo explained, gesturing to her arm with a pissed off glare. "You signed a deal with an ancient being that lives in that book! Now you can be separated from it! Way to go, idiot!"

"Hey! It's not my fault I had to do it!" She yelled back at him, pointing at herself and then at Blitzo. "If I didn't make a deal with that book then I would have died in that circle! That you made! And I'll die here, so send me back home!"

"Oh my god, how do I explain this to a human with no concept of moral real-estate laws?" Blitzo sighed then rubbed his face and gave Coco a blank look. "The book belongs in hell and you signed a deal with it that makes you a part of it. Now, you belong to the book. That means, you belong here because the book belongs here."

"That makes no sense!" Coco shouted, more angry about how grammatically incorrect that was then the idea of being stuck in hell now. "It's a book! A book that I bought, at a discount! I don't belong to it! It belongs to me! The other way around! So, take me back home!"

"UGH!" Blitzo groaned. "Humans are impossible to deal with!"

The apparent seal that was etched into her skin was like a lock, the key lost somewhere with no one having any idea where to find it. Because she belongs to the book, Coco's now stuck here in Hell with the ability to use the book but not the ability to go back.

"There's got to be someway around this," Moxxy said, standing next to Blitzo as he looked at the seal. "Lots of deals come with loopholes! I'm sure if we can find one, we can send the human back to the Living World and the possession won't matter."

"I'm possessed!?" Coco freaked out.

"Oh, stop whining about it!" Blitzo said, rolling his eyes. "Humans and making a big deal about possessions! You guys sign property taxes and agree to shit like marriage and mortgage payments, but you're a little uncomfortable when you do the same thing with a demon?"

"What if we just cut off the arm?" Milly suggested, still smiling. "If she doesn't have the seal, then it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

The ever so causal mention of cutting off her arm made Coco panic and fear flood through her veins. Apparently, whatever magic was living in that tattoo felt that and it turned on something that hadn't happened before. All of a sudden, one of the seven circles near the pentagram light up and a ring of fire blew out from around Coco and forced all three of them across the room!

The fire disappeared just as soon as it showed up, leaving only the trace of sizzling air and Coco standing there with a wide confused expression. All three imps had been thrown and had all hit a different wall in a different part of the room. The all slide down and landed on the floor roughly.

"What the-" Moxxy said, sitting up and rubbing his head. "What was that?"

"Protection spell," Blitzo said, rubbing her arm and groaning slightly. "Looks like that seal doesn't like the idea of its free ride getting hurt that much… Must be there to protect the human from someone killing it."

"So, what are we gonna do?" Milly asked, laying upside down against the wall with her arms splayed out. "We can't send the human back now if she has to stay here…"

Coco stood silently there, looking down and seeing a singed circle burnt around her, the shock of learning she now had some sort of new invisible protector registering as the weirdest part of today. In fact, the whole plethora of shock that had been built up from the moment that first circle had been made had caused her to just clear her mind and forget to register the fear.

When she looked down at her wrist, she saw the needle pointing towards the book that was a couple of steps outside of that same circle. Stepping out and picking up the book, Coco held it up and had to come to the realization that she was, in fact, stuck in hell with four demons who didn't seem like they'd kill her but weren't too keen on having her around either. She also knew that even though there were demons all around her, that she had no idea what was actually possessing her or if keeping the book would actually help her understand what was going on.

And, in the end, Coco decided if she was going to have to stay here, even if it was just for the time being until everyone could figure out what to do next, she should just roll with the punches and improvise how to survive this.

"Can't we all just talk about this over dinner?"


	4. You can't eat the dinner guest

Dinner with a bunch of demons has to be the oddest thing ever.

"You're not gonna eat… me… are you..?" Coco asked, feeling very pressured and uncomfortable.

"Ugh, classic human paranoia." Blitzo said, turning away like he couldn't even be bothered to deal with such nonsense. "No! Please. As if I'd ruin this figure by eating something as fattening as a human."

"That's actually a common misunderstanding," Moxxy pointed out, standing out from behind Blitzo. "Not all demons actually eat humans. That's a really over simplified classification for demon strata you've got there."

"Imps eat regular food," Milly said, smiling and gesturing to the mostly empty fridge. "Oh wait, what do you humans eat then?"

All three of them argued for a total of 20 minutes before they all left and came back with an assortment of different thing, half non-edible. They were thrown down on a makeshift table and presented as the only things they could collectively find in the fridge.

"We sort of forgot what humans could eat," Moxxy explained, a pile of inedible things at his feet that Blitzo had put down. "And we weren't sure if McDonalds is still poisonous or not."

"It's poisoned?" Coco asked before realizing something else. "You're not going to poison me, are you?"  
"No," Blitzo complained, looking like he was in no mood for fun, games or sarcasm. "There's no point to do that now. Let's just find something to eat already. I'm starving now…"  
"Let's order a pizza!" Milly suggested, holding out her phone. "I know a place with great delivery!"

"We can't order anything, Milly," Moxxy reminded her, gesturing to Coco. "We don't know if their food will kill her system or not."

"Isn't anything a human can eat the same as a demon?" Milly asked, getting a shoulder shrug response from both Luna and Coco.

"We could always just make a pizza?" Coco suggested, holding her hands up as an idea. "I mean, all we need is crust, tomatoes, cheese and spices."

"FUCK IT!" Blitzo said, throwing money at Coco and laying his head on his desk. "Just fucking buy anything you need and put food in my mouth when you're done."

After getting hit in the head by a wad of cash, Coco left with both Milly and Moxxy to search the nearest store to but things. Luna stayed behind and looked at Blitzo with dishonest belief.

"You can't seriously be thinking about keeping her here in Hell, right?" Luna asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"What choice do I have, Luna!" Blitzo said, barely picking up his head but showing the honest amount of frustration he had now. "The book won't send her back without it following and we can't lose the book again! Not to mention how much that'll fuck up the living world. No, we'll have keep her here until we can get rid of that stupid curse…"

"Great," Luna rolled her eyes. "Now we're stuck with that human stink in here all the time!"

"Hey, I don't like it anymore than you do!" Blitzo pointed out before plopping back further in his chair. "If only there was some way to separate the book's seal from her permanently. But that'll only happen if she dies and the book's protecting her…"

"Hey, if she died here it might actually save her the hassle of going from the Living world to Hell." Luna half heartedly commented before going back to playing on her phone.

That comment got Blitzo thinking.

'Yeah, that's right,' Blitzo thought, recovering some of his senses. 'If she was already a sinner then the book would have no problem letting her stay here since she'd belong here. So why the hell go to all that trouble to seal her here when it'd make more sense to seal her in the living world… Wait a minute.'

"Hey Luna!" Blitzo called after her, getting up from his desk and shuffling through the drawers. "You remember that mortality balance thing we picked up from that pawn shop awhile ago?"

"Yeah?" Luna said, popping her head through the doorway. "What about it?"

"Get it out again," Blitzo said, shuffling through a bunch of files now as he was trying to connect some dots. "I wanna test something out."

-Meanwhile-

'Well this is awkward.'

The elevator ride down was a tense, ever wondering question on who would break the silence first. Moxxy was refusing to make eye contact with anyone, Milly looked at Coco like she was trying to prompt a question using telepathy, and Coco was trying not to swallow her own tongue. The only thing that broke the silence was an order right before they walked out the door.

"Stop," Moxxy said, holding out his arm and catching Coco in the chest before they all walked out. "We can let her go out here again. She looks like a human!"

"I got here fine before," Coco pointed out uncomfortably. Although she didn't know if she actually wanted to leave this place.

"Because you smelt like trash," Moxxy explained looking at Coco with an unnerving glare. "We can't just let a human go around Hell on her own again. Plus, what if you try to run away again?"

"Where would I go exactly?" Coco deadpanned, now just irritated.

"Oh!" Milly popped an idea out and began scratching somewhere in her pockets. "Here!"

Milly pulled out a pair of sweat bands with large white X on each. She pulled Cocos' wrists over and put one on each, the X on the inside.

"There!" Milly said proudly, hands on her hips and smiling proudly. "Now you just look like a suicide!"

"… Huh?" Coco looked completely confused. "That's a…. Good thing?"

"Oh yeah!" Moxxy snapped and smiled at Milly. "Perfect! It'll explain why she looks so human-y still!"

Coco looked at her wrists then back up at the too of them confused, prompting an explanation as they began walking out.

"So you know how humans die for lots of reasons?" Milly started to explain. "Well, usually, when they first come here, the reason is pretty obvious. You get stabbed, stab mark wounds. You get shot, bullet hole wounds."

"Yeah, but what's with the 'X'?" Coco asked, flashing the 'X' marks.

"It's usually just a hint about how that person died," Moxxy explained. "Lot's of people get new bodies, but they sometimes will carry the reason they died. Or they manifest a persona similar to their sin."

"A… what?"

"Like this!" Milly started to explain by picking up some kind of homeless drug addict whose head was torn open with teeth filling in the spaces and five sharp red eyes. "See, this usually means this guy committed a sin like-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Milly stopped as she saw Coco had jumped back and started running and hiding behind the nearest dumpster she could find. She then remembered humans are jumpy and don't like seeing things that scary or look like it would possibly eat them.

Grumbling about "she ran away again" under his breath, Moxxy went and pulled Coco away from her safe trash and back over to Milly; who was still holding the guy up.

"Would you please not pick up stray demons of the street again, Milly?" Moxxy said, gesturing to the obvious shaken Coco who was trembling slightly.

"Oops," Milly laughed a little. "Sorry, sweetie. Just thought I'd introduce her to the local color! But this guy's not so bad! He's just a little-"

At that, his head almost fell off his neck and revealed another set of shard teeth. Which, prompting countless mental horror images and explanations, set Coco into yet another screaming fit. Now, Moxxy was holding onto her to keep her from running away.

"Sorry!" Moxxy said to the almost beheaded homeless demon, awkwardly smiling while turning away from Cocos' screams next to his ear. "She's new."

"S'okay!" The man's neck said, his face smiling as Milly dropped him. "I'd be freaked out too if I was a new blood…"

The next five minutes of prompted calming down ended with Milly agreeing to hold Coco's hand and walk with her so she could watch the ground and not run the risk of seeing anything else that would emotionally scar her.

"What is wrong with this place…" Coco muttered under her breath, feeling like she's aged a good twenty years in the last five minutes.

"It's called Hell not Paris for a reason," Moxxy said bluntly before walking into a grocery store and then up to Coco with a scolding look. "Can you please try not to make spectacle of yourself by screaming bloody murder every time you see a demon?"

"…" Coco just gave a sharp glare at him and attempted to make a smart comment, but decided being rude to a demon was going to get her nowhere. "Fine. But what if I actually see a bloody murder?"

"Oh, go ahead then!" Milly said cheerfully, picking up a basket. "We all love seeing some interactive art display!"

Coco just stared at Milly, then turned to Moxxy and decided it might be best to hang out with this guy. He seemed the most reasonable and sane of the bunch.

-Back at IMP-

The three of them came back with about three bags of groceries to find Blitzo in the center of the room setting something up with care.

"Uh, sir?" Moxxy asked, looking throughly perplexed. "What are you doing?"

"Shh! Shh! Sh!" Blitzo said, eyes focusing carefully on what looked like an only set of scales set to a weird looking clock. "I have to have absolute concentration for this!"

"Oooookay?" Moxxy said, then turning to Coco and Milly. "Can you guys go into the kitchen and not make a mess."

"No promises," both Milly and Coco said, both walking into the kitchen with bags and catching idly about food.

"Yeah," Moxxy said, turning towards Blitzo and Luna with an uncomfortable look on his face. "Milly's kind of taken a liking to the human. We might need to figure out what to do soon."

"Already on it!" Blitzo said confidently as he turned to Moxxy. "Remember that scale of sin I bought a couple of months ago?"

"The one I told you not to buy because it wasn't in our budget and it's useless unless we already have something of the person's to weigh." Moxxy said, crossing his arms to say he remembered exactly what Blitzo was talking about.

"Yeah!" He said happily. "So I bought it anyway and now we're gonna use it!"

Moxxy muttered several incoherent curses under his breath before breathing deeply and looking back up at Blitzo with an irate expression.

"Sir," he firmly began. "I don't see how a sin scale can help us now that we've actually got the human in hell. The thing is supposed to tell us if the human will go to hell, not if they already are there!"

"You see, that's where you're missing the big picture," Blitzo scolded as he gestured to the contraption. "This thing measures the likely hood of human either going to heaven or hell."

"And?" Both Luna and Moxxy asked, not seeing where this idea was going.

"If we test it out on her," Blitzo pointed his thumb towards the kitchen. "We'll see if she's already scheduled to come down here or not. If she is, then boom! We can kill her, and keep the book because her body is already here! The curse seal will stay in hell, the book will be up for grabs and the girl won't remember a thing!"

"And if she's not going to hell?" Luna offered.

"Then we'll have to think of something more creative," Blitzo said, waving off the possible "if". "But hey, what're the chances of us summoning the first human not going to hell? It's almost impossible that she isn't also scheduled to be here!"

"Sir, you're still missing the point," Moxxy said, holding his hand out to show Blitzo's been deliberately ignoring something. "Even if we could kill her and get the book back that way, we still can't kill her! The book is protecting her! Even if she's going to come down here, who says the book won't follow her demon form too!"

"Uh, the curse is "until we share our last breath together"." Blitzo said, making quotation marks in the air and then crossing his arms. "Jeez, you sound like you're not a professional. Have you forgotten? We're the "Immediate Murder Professionals" not the "Oh Well We're Pretty Sure It Can't Happen Because We're Afraid Of Some Curse" professionals. Look. We got the girl. We kill the girl, we get the book. Simple!"

"I can't even begin to explain how not simple that is…" Moxxy grumbled, his head in his hand as he suffered from the never ending illogic of the man who signs his paychecks.

While this was going on, the kitchen Milly and Coco work working on a pizza sauce. Prompting numerous conversation topics on taste, topping, health and now, Hell.

"So you don't remember getting here?" Coco asked Milly. The way she had been talking about demons before made her wonder if all demons were once humans. And if so, how did they all become so… demon-y?

"I'm pretty sure I was born here," Milly said, tapping her cheek and looking away before smiling at her again. She had been chopping garlic and was moving on to onions. "Or maybe not? I can't remember now! It's been awhile."

"You've got a nice southern accent," Coco commented with a smile. "Georgia?"

"Aw! Thanks sweetie!" Milly laughed a bit and thought on it. "You've got a similar accent too."

"South Carolina," Coco nodded. "My dad made me work on gettin' rid of most of my accent though. He said it sounded weird when I spoke Spanish."

"Spanish?" Milly stopped and looked over curiously. "But didn't we get you from England?"

"I'm just studying there. I'm full Americana, and my dad's from Guatemala." Coco stared at the small stove and prayed that I was a regular gas stove and not haunted. It did flare up uncontrollably for a second but then went back to normal. "Uh, sooooooo~ Why are you workin' here?"

"Cause I just love killin' people~!" Milly sang, not noticing at all how disturbing that sounded.

"… Oka~y." Coco panicked and carefully stepped away from Milly who was holding a chopping knife. "So, you've been here at this business for awhile?"

"Oh yeah," Milly thought about that for a minute. "I guess it's just been a few years since me and Moxxy signed on with Blitzo."

"Did you guys always have the book?" Coco had been wondering this for awhile now. "Do demons even need a book for summoning things and portals? It looks like a couple of you guys already have magic."

"Blitzo did!" Milly nodded, trying to remember the exact details. "Well, a lot of imps are really weak, like me and Mox can't do much magic other than maybe lighting a fire. Blitzo can do a little here and there, but just about nobody is strong enough to summon a portal to the living world on their own!"

"So you need the book to make you stronger?"

"That's pretty much it!" Milly walked over to where Coco was standing. "It takes a lot of energy and power to get to the living world without messing up the interdimentional space. So, having the book makes it easier to go across."

"And I guess you'll keep opening portal even without the book?" Coco gave a grin.

"Yup!" Milly cheered, patting Coco on the back. "But now it's completely safe for all humans and demons! So thanks for bringing it back!"

"I guess it makes more sense if it stayed here in Hell then," she said, looking out the door into the office where she left the book. Getting really concerned about the moral ambiguity of all of this. "But I don't like that you guys use it to kill people…"

"Oh~ Don't think of it like that." Milly rubbed her shoulder consolingly. "Just think of it like this: If you don't let us use the book, then we'll just end up killing more random humans until we find the one we're looking for. Plus! If you don't, we'll kill you!"

"…" She was way too freaked out about how Milly could easily give a death threat without even trying. Better to stay on her good side and let these guys do what they're doing and save the rest of humanity some peace. "Okay…"

They put everything for the pizza together and into the oven, which Milly was in charge of because Coco wasn't sure if she could keep from burning the building down while using it. Then they walked back out into the office where Blitzo had stopped messing with the thing from before. When they looked at it, it really did look like some kind of balancing scale, except now Coco saw that the clock on top was more like a mirror with some sort of old-time weight scale needle.

"There you are!" Blitzo cheered, walking over to Coco with a smile. "Perfect timing! Alright, I need to ask you something. Do you think you're a good person?"

"Um," Coco looked confused at Blitzo. She momentarily gave the same expression to Milly before looking back up at him. "I like to think I am?"

"Do you know how to measure how much of a good person you are?"

"I mean," Coco scratched her head and thought about it. "I don't think you can actually mathematically measure a moral quantity like-"

"The answer is "yes" but only if you have a demonic instrument made to do it," Blitzo said, wrapping her arm and dragging her over to the scale. "Now, step right over here and we'll be getting your answer real soon!"

"Again with the taking me to places I don't want to go…" Coco muttered a little, letting herself be dragged where ever because there's no point in fighting this now.

Blitzo stopped and stood her in front of the weights. When she looked in the mirror, she noticed that there seemed to be a line separating one half from the other and a needle sitting directly in the middle of it. The whole thing was coated in what she believed looked like fools gold, an awful gaudy looking thing that looked more expensive than it could be worth.

"Now," Blitzo clapped as he began to explain. "See these weights here? They measure how close you are to going to either hell or heaven. And the mirror looks at you and decides if you're good enough to go to heaven or not!"

"Wait," Coco looked confused at the mirror then turned to Blitzo. "How is that possible?"  
"It's pretty hefty magical stuff," Blitzo brushed off with an inconclusive answer. "We were gonna use this to see how much extra we should charge our clients for their targets. You know! If the person was going to go to heaven then we could charge a little more if they want the murder to look embarrassing. And if they're going to hell, great news! We'll charge them even more!"

"That… sounds like you're just trying to charge more money no matter what."  
"Exactly!"

No one knew if they should explain how Blitzo didn't seem to understand either pricing or economics. Coco was wondering how this business was running well enough to rent out an office space this big.

"But, the thing is useless," Moxxy explained, stepping up to the weights and pointing at it. "It needs to have at least something of the targets' most used items to judge or for the target to look in the mirror to decide which will happen. But, just like the book, it belongs to hell so it can't actually leave hell."

"Can't you just bring the mirror with you?" Coco offered, pointing at the mirror. "Or use some kind of spell to like, make a mirror pathway between the portal and here to…"

Coco trailed off once she realized she was suggesting a better way to judge killing people.

'What am I doing?' Coco wondered, now holding her tongue and shutting up. 'Shut up now! You don't help murder people even if it's indirectly!'

"Well now that that's covered," Blitzo walked behind Coco and turned her face to the mirror. Blitzo's looked at their reflections in the mirror and smiled at them. "Haven't you always wondered how likely it is you'll go to heaven after you die?"  
"No," Coco said uncomfortably. This whole thing really starting to creep her out and wondering what mental loops he had to jump to get to here. "I actually try not to think about that stuff…"

"What?" Milly chipped in, looking at the reflections in the mirror too. "Aren't you religious?"

"Not really?" Coco said, looking at Milly through the mirror. "I mean, I think I might be more now after coming to Hell… But I really never wanted to be judged like this while I'm alive."  
"Ah~ Don't worry about it!" Blitzo said, patting her on the back. "You see, you're always being judged. And, eventually, you'll die and probably go to one place of the other. But! Good news is, you didn't actually have to be sitting and wondering about "what religion is right" this whole time!"  
"Oh thank… whoever," Coco sighed in relief. That had been worrying her a little bit over the last few hours.

"But! Why don't we just take a look and see where you would be going." Blitzo offered, trying to play it as a fun game. "Won't it be fun!"

"I don't really see how…" Coco responded, then looked up at Blitzo carefully. "Do I have a choice?"

"No." He said smiling.

"Okay then," Coco turned back to the mirror and looked at herself. "So, uh, how do I do… it?"

First, Blitzo backed everyone away from the mirror so Coco could have full view of herself alone. Along the side, Moxxy, Milly, Luna and Blitzo were all looking on carefully.

"Now just touch one of the scales," Blitzo instructed, holding up a finger. "When they're done weighing, that needle in the mirror will tip over to what side you belong to! If it goes to the left, you're in Heaven. If it goes to the right, well, you get the picture."

"Right…" Coco said uncomfortably, taking in a deep breath. "Okay. Here goes… my soul, I guess?"

She tapped one of the weights lightly and watched carefully as they both began to swing up and down. Coco could actually see how the weights were carefully weighing the good and the bad parts of her, the invisible parts that even she couldn't tell were there. They kept falling and rising, and Coco couldn't tell if this was making her feel good or not.

When she looked back up at the mirror, she could see the needle swinging side to side over the middle line like the weights were. It was having a time adding up the weights and coming to terms. Sometimes it fell all the way over to the left only to rise and go straight to the middle on the right side. The whole thing was giving Coco a heart attack.

'Could I actually go to hell because of this?' She wondered, watching it go. 'Is it a bad thing to even want to judge how good I am? Shouldn't I just, well, try to be a good person? Oh man, this is killing me…'

Finally, the whole thing began slowing down. The weights began to carefully settle, with the left side tipping down more than the right. And the needle in the mirror slowed carefully, moving achingly slow towards the middle from the right side.

'Oh god,' Coco's eyes went wide and her heart began to beat erratically as the needle tipped slower and slower. 'Please please tell me I'm not a bad person! Tell me it's still going!'

Her relief came when the needle tipped back into the middle line and then, ever so slowly, moved a few inches over to the left. Coco had made it. She was judged as a good person.

Barely.

'… That's it,' Coco stared hollowly at the mirror, her eyes not taking off of the needle. It was so close to the middle to her. 'That's… as good as I've ever been?'

The relief began to slowly mix with shame. The shame that after all this time, all 27 years of her life, Coco realized she wasn't as good a person as she believed she was.

But the others had an opposite reaction.

"Damnit!" Blitzo complained, stepping over and checking out both the weights momentarily as if he couldn't believe this was fair. "I can't believe it! The only actually innocent person in the world just happens to land in Hell!"

"Hey! Congratulations!" Milly cheered, walking over to the mirror. "Looks like you're doing good with whatever you're doing!"  
"I told you this would be a waste of time, sir," Moxxy stated. As if adding 'sir' made it any less insulting. "It doesn't matter what kind of person she is, we still can't do anything!"

"Looks like it to me you barely got into Heaven now," Luna said, looking at Coco's scale. "I guess minimum standards apply to you."

"…" Coco stared at her reflection before her expression started to fall into a sad child's reaction. "I thought that… I was better than this."

"We all think that," Moxxy said off handidly, not really caring about it or giving much condolence. "Everyone thinks their "special" or "a better person" than anyone else. When we're all just the same and it's only a thin line between being good and going to hell."

"But, does this really mean I'm a good person?" Coco wondered out loud, looking at herself. "If all this time, I've been thinking I'm a good person and the is all I've got… Does that mean I'm doing something bad and I don't even know it?"

The others all stopped talking and looked at each other… well, concerned. This was the first time they've ever heard Coco sound so… depressed. And the way she looked at herself in the mirror, it looked like she was beating herself up in her head.

'Great,' Blitzo complained, looking at their reflection with contempt. 'Now I feel bad!'

"Aw, sweetie, it's okay." Milly said gently, tapping her on both shoulders and looking up at the scale with a slightly gapped tooth smile "Just look! This thing proves it! You don't belong here. You're good to go!"

"But it's not about going to heaven," Coco explained, looking down at her hands for a moment and then turning to look at Milly. "I always thought, as long as you're a good person then you're doing a good thing in life and everything will be fine. But! This just shows I'm not a good person! I'm just… a passing person? A barely decent person? Uh, a minimum requirements for a decent human being?"

"Who cares?" Luna barked a little while rolling her eyes and walking a few steps away, the mirror now creeping her out a bit. "You're not killing anybody. I'm pretty sure you're not cheating or anything. So why care?"

"Because I want to be good!" Coco said, turning to look at Luna and then at the mirror. It was like the only source of pride that could ever matter to her had been pulled out and shown that it actually wasn't impressive at all to look at. "I mean, if nothing else. Even if I can't get my fucking life together, or settle on anything or keep completely fucking things up. Then as long as I'm a good person then I did something good in my life!"

That outburst was way too personal and left Coco a giant flustering mess. She looked down from the reflection and at her feet, wishing to whatever God that what had come out of her mouth could be silenced or that nobody understood what she meant. It was only too unfortunate that they all did, and they understood it well.

A moment later, a small bell chimed from the kitchen.

"Uh, dinner's done," Milly said, quickly making another topic.

"Let's…." Moxxy said, starting to feel uncomfortable. "Drop this whole thing and just go ahead and start eating?"

"… Yeah," Coco agreed. Sighing and finally turning away from the mirror. "I-I need to not think about this anymore before I do something crazy. Sorry about that…"

"It's okay, sweetie," Milly said consolingly, taking her arm and walking her away from the scale. "We all have an extensential crisis every now and then."

Blitzo opened up an office room for everyone to eat at together and then pulled Moxxy aside for a "business discussion" while Milly and Coco got the dinner ready and Luna did nothing.

"Okay, that plan didn't work." Blitzo admitted as he and Moxxy quietly talked inside closet of the office for privacy.

"I could have told you that before this whole thing started, sir," Moxxy said, crossing his arms and glaring. He was not happy about getting thrown into a closet randomly again. "In fact, I did tell you that."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Blitzo brushed off to say he didn't care. "Look, now we have to go back to Plan B."

"Which is?"

"Kill her."

"Isn't that just Plan A?" Moxxy asked, incredibly confused and a little exasperated. He sighed and leaned back, ready to accept defeat. "You know, sir? I don't see the problem with this. She keeps quiet, she cleans up after herself, she doesn't do anything impossibly annoying. I think we can manage with one human in our office."

"Uh, hello? Do you not see how annoying it'll be having a human all up in our literal business!" Blitzo explained, finding Moxxy lack of murderous enthusiasm irritating. He should have pulled in Luna or Milly. "She'll be all hung up on the "morality" of all this and we'll keep having to ask her to use the book now! Plus! Do you realize how much shit we'll get in if somebody finds out we're harboring a human in our office!"  
"Yes sir, I understand." Moxxy deadpanned before gesturing to the entire outside world. "But if you haven't noticed, sir, not a lot of demons are smart enough to figure out she's a human. Apparently she checks off the minimum requirements as long as Milly or I are around her to cover up most of her human sent."

"That's the thing," Blitzo complained, crossing his arms. "I don't want to spend my time babysitting some annoying human! Let's just get rid of her and we can all go on with our lives again!"

"You do realize SHE won't be able to go on with her life like that sir?" Moxxy asked, now kind of worried about his boss's sanity.

Their man talk was interrupted by Luna forcing open the closet door.

"Are you idiots going to come out of the closet or are you just gonna fuck around in here?" Luna snidely said before reaching up and grabbing a set of plates from the top shelf. "Just live with it. The only way she's dying and you're getting the book back is if she offs herself or something stupid happens and kills her."

And as Luna walked away, Blitzo got two new bright ideas. And he smiled brightly.

"Okay!" Blitzo said, turning to Moxxy as he shut the door again. "Now we move on to Plans C and D!"

"Did you really have to close the door?" Moxxy asked, looking throughly confused and wanting to be anywhere but here right now.

Blitzo and Moxxy came into the office room a few minutes after the girls had started eating. Both Milly and Coco had over-estimated how much they would need so there was a lot of pizza to go around. Which was good because it was all pretty delicious.

"You done making out yet?" Luna half-commented while eating.

"Thank you for your concern, Luna~" Blitzo said pleasantly, taking a seat across from Coco who was sitting next to Milly. "So! Miss Coco, was it?"  
"Uh," she swallowed a bit before looking up at Blitzo carefully. What did he want now? "Coco's just fine."

"Well! It looks like we're all going to be spending a lot of time together from now on~!" Blitzo sang, putting his most pleasant and entertaining voice on. "And I thought it would be swell to get to know one another. And what better way to do it than over a meal!"  
"Um, okay." Coco smiled a little and sat up more. While getting to know a demon didn't sound like the best thing in the world, it was true she'd have to try to… hopefully live with them in the coming future. Plus, he seemed pretty entertaining now. "Well, what do you guys usually do here? Your office is pretty quiet."

"Ah~ No worries! Business has been pretty slow these last few days," Blitzo said, picking up a slice of pizza and then looking at her excitedly. "But I wanna know more about you! What makes you tick? What is Coco afraid of? Amused by? Distracted by? Possibly allergic to?"  
"…" Coco just stared blankly at Blitzo for a second. Did that question sound invasive or dangerous? She didn't know. So she decided to answer broadly. "I like reading a lot. Uh, I draw and play piano? If that's anything?"  
"Oh! What do you study?" Milly asked, looking interested. "You said you go to school in the UK."  
"I'm studying International Development," Coco smiled, blushing a little and laughing. It felt weird to admit, especially since that was a particularly useless degree in Hell. "I thought I wanted to work for a charity or something that would let me travel. But, I just spend all my time in the art and music department or writing for the publishers' group."

Blitzo could tell this would go off the topic he was looking for. Namely: Things he could use to potentially kill her later with. So he nudged Moxxy, sitting next to him, with his shoulder. The imp almost dropped his food and looked up to give Blitzo a glare before he saw his boss trying to get him to interact with her more. Sighing, Moxxy automatically agreed to ask the questions Blitzo had previously instructed him to.

"Are you seeing anyone up in the living world," Moxxy asked in a disinterested tone. He thought this was the most embarrassing question even and wished he didn't have to be saying it but here he was, doing it anyway. "You know, romantically?"

"Hm?" The surprised Coco a bit but she laughed it off. "No, I'm not dating anyone. I don't even have enough friends for that."

Blitzo again nudged Moxxy to continue on the same question. Moxxy gave a face to show how much he didn't want to but Blitzo kept nudging and he gave up.

"What about…" Moxxy blushed and covered his face with his hand, feeling absolutely ridiculous about this question and wishing the chair would swallow him up whole as he said it. "Sexually?"

"…" Coco just out right blushed and glared over at Moxxy a little at that. "That's none of your business…. No, I'm too busy for that."  
"What's your sex life like then?" Milly asked, non-maliciously at all. This became girl talk for her now. "I mean, what are you into? Who are you into? How many are you into?"  
"I…. Don't know if I can really answer that?" Coco said, looking even more unnerved now.

"Why?" Luna commented, starting to enjoy seeing everyone squirm at the table. "You a virgin?"  
"No!" Coco was completely red now and looked completely undone. This level of embarrassment was almost as bad as how freaking being in Hell is. "I just don't get around a lot! Sorry! My dating life is as boring as I am!"

"So you have no one who'll notice if you're say, perhaps, gone for a long time?" Blitzo continued, digging in deep on this subject. "No lover who'll come and search for you."

"No," Coco responded, now just glaring at Blitzo. "I've got roommates and family though. If that's what you mean."

"Hmm," Blitzo thought on this for a moment before proposing something. "Are you gay?"

"What?"

"Trans?"

"Why the- What even is this?" Coco was baffled.

"He's lookin' for your sex preferences," Milly explained.

"… Why?" Coco asked, very concerned and very creeped out.

"I just want to get to know you is all," Blitzo said, smiling innocently. "Hey! If it helps you feel better, I'm a male leaning bi-sexual man myself!"  
"Really?" Coco was surprised by his honesty. It actually helped settle her a bit hearing him be open about that.

"Oh yeah! Hell's a great place to be sexually curious and open in!" Blitzo said, waving off some of her concerns. "We don't really care all that much. And most of the homophobes kind of get where being a homophobe lands them. I mean, well, only most of them who aren't really strong or whatever. So what about you?"

"Um, well, I guess I'd say I'm queer," Coco said, leaning back and thinking about it. She didn't often talk about it so this had been a secret for a while now. Most people honestly just thought she was gay anyway, so she never really corrected them. "I haven't had THAT much experience, but being queer always suited me and made sense to me."

"I see," Blitzo stored that bit of info away. "And anyway, you said you've got no friends, right?"

"That's a pretty broad way to put it," Coco said, now glaring a little as she took another piece of pizza. "I have friends, but they're just people I go to school and work with."

"So professional acquaintances?" Moxxy defined.

"Yeah," Coco nodded, taking a bite. "It's not really easy making friends when you're always so busy. And I've kind of moved around a lot over the years with work and stuff. So it's hard to keep 'em too."

While this invasive questions seemed innocent enough, Blitzo was working on trying to make a general profile on how likely it would be for others to believe she committed suicide. Or, in any case, if she would admit to having an uncontrollable health issue like diabetes or heart trouble he could manipulate. What can we say, he's a demon!

But, it was sort of getting boring to him because he was used to already having the target ready to kill by this point. So he wanted to speed this process up as quickly as possible.

"So, Coco!" Blitzo started enthusiastically as she began eating again. He needed to approach this subtly but also show he was interested and willing to listen. "How do you feel about getting taken out?"

The fact that Blitzo was un-subtle with this made Moxxy want to choke him.

Coco nearly spit out all her food after he said that. She choked for a second, which made Blitzo hopeful, but calmed down and looked up at him with a baffled expression. What was he talking about? Was he suggesting that… he or her…. Should… could…?

"Uuuuuuh, no?" Coco said, trying to sound polite but mostly covering up an incredibly awkward and disturbed expression. "I don't think… this is the place… for that."

"What are you talking about? Hell's a great place to get taken out in!" Blitzo explained, now looking even more enthused and animated, happy to talk about one of his favorite subjects. "There's so many ways, places, people to help you out with the body, just everything!"

"…" Staring in absolute horror, Coco inched her way away and looked for a closet to hide in.

"Sir, I think she's confused about what we mean." Moxxy said, giving Blitzo a side long look before looking back at Coco. "He doesn't mean it like that. It's worse."

"Wha?" Coco mouthed.

"UGH!" Luna growled, slamming her fist on the table and then looking over at the others. "GOD! This is annoying! Do you want us to kill you!?"

"Very subtle Lunie," Blitzo said, nodding approvingly. "Way to be diplomatic."

It took two seconds for the unbelievability of that question to register and for Coco to look out raged.

"Are you all freaking insane!?" Coco shouted, standing up and showing her impulsive outrage. "No! I don't need help with- I mean I don't want to die!"

"Why not?" Blitzo complained, sitting still carefully and pointing out his only weapon of retort "We've already proved you've got nothing to lose!"

"I thought suicide was sin." Coco crossed her arms and glared across at Blitzo.

"Well, it doesn't have to be suicide." He offered, beginning to pull out an actual list of murder offerings from painless-painfull-agonizing-woah. "We could just make it look like-"

"That's murder and I said no!" Coco shouted again, now slamming her hands on the table for emphasis.

"Could you all stop talking about killing each other at the dinner table," Milly glared at both Blitzo and Coco. "It's been a long day and we all need some peace and quiet for a minute!"  
"Milly's right," Moxxy said, nodding along with her as he sat back. "Let's all agree that nobody's dying, nobody's running away and nobody's going to talk about killing one another."

"I wasn't talking about murdering anyone." Coco grumbled as she slummed back into her chair, now glaring back over at Blitzo and grinding her teeth. "Yet…."

The table for discussion had closed and everyone decided to stop talking all together. Something about offering to murder someone just puts everyone off of small talk. No one talked again until after the dinner while cleaning up, and even then it was only Coco, Milly and Moxxy.

"Why does he want to kill me now?" Coco asked, looking concerned to Milly. "I mean, I know why he wanted to earlier today. But I thought he was happy with getting the book back."

"It's not your… Well, it is your fault." Milly laughed.

"It's complicated," Moxxy said, already ending this topic because of annoyance and walking past with an arm load of dishes, looking at Milly. "Honey, can you get the dishwasher set up for me? I need to rinse these."  
"Sure sweety!" Milly said, walking past.

"I'll uh, help you with that, Moxxy." Coco walked up to the sink with him and started to help scrub. "You guys seem close."

"We're married," Milly and Moxxy said together, then turned and smiled at one another.

"What! No way!" Coco looked shocked but smiled at them. "How cute! I didn't know demons could get married."

"There's lots of things demons do together!" Milly sang happily. "It's nice to be married to my business partner too!"

"I guess I don't know… No, I don't know anything about demons." Coco said, going back to scrubbing dishes.

"Eh, you'll learn more the more you're here," Moxxy said off-handidly and then giving her a smug grin. "You could start by not assuming all demons don't have lives."

"… But I don't want to be here for long." Coco pointed out, turning to look at Moxxy. "Look, I get where you guys are coming from, but Blitzo's right. I can't stay in Hell. I've got a life!"

"So you want to die?" Moxxy asked confused.

"No! I said I have a life!" Coco said, ashamed to say even if it's a pretty sad and pathetic one, it's all she's got. "I'm saying we can think of other ways to get me back home. Like, getting rid of this curse?"  
"That's a pretty tough one to get rid of, sweetie," Milly said, pointing at your arm again. "That's a strong seal, and the deal's directly tied to your life. You mess with it, and you might just mess with how long you get to live!"

"Not to mention we don't have than much time," Moxxy gestured to the dishes and gave a cross look. "Listen, I get this is annoying. Trust me, we're all upset by it! But we can't just stop all our lives because you don't want to be here. We're all lost on how to solve this."

Coco pulled up her sleeve and looked at the tattoo again. It was really big and complicated looking, the most demonic thing she had going for her right now. But! With every deal, there's lee-way and loopholes. There's gotta be something, she'll just have to find it.

"I'm sure I can think of something," Coco said, turning back to smile at the others. "I'm smart enough to look into it. Maybe the book even has something in there!"

"Good luck," Moxxy said, starting to load up the dishwasher. It's not that he thought this was stupid, it's just he didn't really believe a human could figure out how to turn around a demonic summoning and deal on her own. "Just don't go crazy from it."

When done, the others came out and saw Blitzo writing pages of pages of ideas, crumpling them up and throwing them in the trash one by one. When Moxxy decided to pick one up and open it, he saw it was a poorly drawn, literally drawn, idea of how to cause an accident in Hell to kill a human.

"You're still stuck on this?" Moxxy asked, looking tired and trying to keep Coco from seeing it.

"Yes!" Blitzo said, erasing something then getting so mad at it he tore it to pieces. "Until I figure something out we're stuck with a human! So excuse me for being the only person here trying to take care of our problem."

"Trying to kill me isn't taking care of your problem," Coco pointed out and the sighed. "Are you just gonna keep thinking of ways to kill me after all…?"

"You got any better ideas?" Blitzo asked sarcastically.

"Getting rid of the curse!?" Coco shouted out before slumping down and rubbing her face. It had been a long day, and the exhaustion was piling up so much that being angry was taking up too much energy. "You know what? I'm done. Is there somewhere in here I can lay down… and nobody will kill me?"

"There's a room in the back we use for inventory," Luna said. She pulled out an old ratty blanket from her desk and threw it at Coco. "Try not to make a mess of it."

"Thanks," Coco said half heartedly. The blanket looked like it hadn't been washed in years and something had eaten holes into it. But it was the best she's got.

Milly and Moxxy stayed to try and talk some sense into Blitzo while Coco walked away. It wasn't that she didn't care they were talking about her life anymore, but she couldn't deal with her life hanging in the balance by demons who don't think she even matters. She walked back to the storage room pointed to and found it was basically an armory filled with different kinds of weapons and portable torture devices that she's never imagined before.

"…" Coco panicked for a minute before sighing and deciding she could live with it. The irony not escaping her that a bunch of serial killers were outside and she would be sleeping with all of their weapons. "I guess this technically is the safest place in here…"

She found a pull bulb light that light up the room fairly well but saw that the door wouldn't shut all the way. That was fine because she didn't really know if she wanted to be accidentally locked in here. That could drive her more crazy than she already is right now.

The room was fairly spacious with hard wood floors and walls with no windows. The whole place was organized well with standing cupboards, lockers and cases. The guns were organized by size and calibre, the knifes by size and style, looked like there were different drawers and set up materials for poisons and chemical things. And… a… piano?

'What's a piano doing in here?'

Coco walked up over the the free standing, stand up piano that was pushed near a corner of the room. She opened the top and saw that the keys and everything looked right in place. Seeing as there were no cots or anything to lay on, Coco decided to sit on the bench and examine the piano.

'Strangest thing I've seen in here all day,' she thought to herself, touching at a key lightly. 'I wonder if it plays correctly…'

Touching the middle C, she heard that the piano was working and even in tune! Sitting there, she couldn't help but continue touching keys and working through scales in her head, calming down with each chord that came from them at the end.

'I wonder what my family will do if I don't contact them?' The thought came as she kept playing Her grandmother had gotten her piano lessons and pushed her to always keep practicing. Her mother got her into choir and band, her dad into writing and illustrations. It felt like, without their influences, Coco wouldn't have everything she had now. 'What if I… never get to go back?'

Coco stopped playing as guilt welled up in her eyes. She left home over five years ago to work abroad. Nobody wanted her to leave. No one would help her buy a plane ticket, plan a travel log, or give her advice about overseas careers. Many of the kept writing her to ask her when she would come back, to tell her they miss her. To ask if she missed them? If she was lonely?

"I am…" Coco said, sucking in the tears and biting her bottom lip. But her hands flew up over her face and covered her eyes, like she was shielding the piano from and accidental tears that would fall out. "I so lonely… I don't know what to do… I don't know what I'm doing so wrong…".

A moment of sitting like that, and it felt like all of those feeling rushed away. And all she was left with was a powerful feeling of wanting to play a song. The song that she had learned specially in case one day she had the chance to play it for her whole family.

She sat straight up, held her hands gently, carefully. And started humming her melody before she set into the first straza.

(Youtube: Ben Platt "In case you don't live forever)

watch?v=dNTLk_6ngow

Outside the room, Blitzo walked up to the inventory. He had to figure out something, so he brought the book with him and was determined to start questioning her for real to figure out how to send her back. He was about to kick down the door when he stopped and heard Coco singing. She sang strong and unconsciously, like no one would ever hear her unless she sang like she was in a temple.

"In case you don't live forever let me tell you now~

I love you more than you'll ever wrap your head around~

In case you don't live forever, let me tell you the truth.

I'm everything that I am~, because of you."

He stood and listened, her voice coming through and the piano breaking through softly. It's echoing along with her clear voice captivating him. He listened to every stanza, every single beat.

"I have a Hero whenever I need one!

I just look up to you and I see one!

I'm a man because you taught me to be one~~~~!"

At the last part of the melody, Blitzo found himself also humming along and swaying a bit. He heard something so distinctly… human. A need to express a clear emotion, a clear desire:

Let me tell you how much I love you and how much you made me who I am.

As she sang, Blitzo felt the book under his arm give off a strange vibration. Like it was listening and humming along too.

When the song was over, he heard her let out a long strained sigh and shut the piano leave down. He peaked in through the crack of the door and saw that she had laid her head a top of the leave, resting like it was her desk instead of laying down.

Blitzo looked away and turned to look at the wall. Suddenly, he didn't feel like he had any reason to be there.

'What's wrong with this?' Blitzo wondered. He felt… sad. Or ashamed. Or maybe like he kind of related? He didn't know. He shook his head and turned proudly to walk to his desk. 'I'm sure we can fix this!'

"Alright, everyone!" Blitzo shouted out at the others as they were getting things together and preparing to leave. "Change of plans again! Now, we are searching this book and every other book in here until we can figure out some way to break that curse!"

"What!?" Moxxy shouted, looking outraged as his office hours were extended indefinitely now. "What do you mean!? You just said there's no way to break the curse and now you're-"

"less chatty more read-y," Blitzo said, sitting the book down and pulling out a case of more on the floor. "There! Now, if all four of us worked together and get sorted through all of this, we'll be ready to make a plan by-"

"I'm out," Luna said, walking away and into the night with no plans to return until an hour after office opening hours tomorrow.

"Now if the three of us work together!" Blitzo corrected himself. "We'll come up with a plan by tomorrow afternoon!"

"I'll…. Get some popcorn ready," Milly said defeatedly. She knew there was no use arguing about it.

"Our overtime is going to look like a mess.." Moxxy complained, picking up a book.

-Early in the morning.-

Nobody slept that night. The imps all worked through the night and morning, reading, yelling, threatening one another and occasionally crying in a corner. It ended with more less results, more confusion, and maybe one of them forgetting how to read permantently.

"Milly…" Moxxy groaned as he walked into the kitchen. He was nursing a headache and couldn't quiet focus. "Coffee…"

Suddenly a hot mug of drip coffee appeared in Moxxy's hand, the scent fragrant and making him feel more alive.

"Ah~" Moxxy said, taking a sip and then pulling the hand towards him with smile. "Thanks, honey~"

Moxxy went in for a kiss but-

"Uh, Moxxy?" Coco said out of nowhere. "I'm not Milly…"

Moxxy stopped midway through and opened his eyes to see he… accidentally pulled in the human girl. His expression dropped like the mug of coffee and splattered all over the floor.

"Aw," Coco complained, looking at the shattered mug. "I just made that…"

"Why're you in the kitchen!?" Moxxy shouted, now standing on top of the counter like she was the one who did something wrong.

"Relax," Coco said, walking over to take out the mop and broom and clean up the mess. "I just made some coffee. Couldn't sleep. What are you guys still doing here?"

"Working." Moxxy announced, walking up to the drip coffee and pouring himself another mug. He then stopped and saw that Coco had changed outfits again. This time a shit and pants that actually fit her, but. "Is that my shirt?"

"Oh!" Coco blushed awkwardly after sweeping everything up and looking down at her shirt. "Uh, Milly let me borrow it. I can give it back if you-"

"No no no!" Moxxy said, making sure she wasn't offended or pressured. It's been a weird morning. "It's. It's fine. Just… uh. You look… Good in it?"

At that, Blitzo and Milly both walked into the kitchen as Coco finished mopping up the mess on the floor.

"Thank GOD. There's coffee." Blitzo said, also walking over to the pot and pouring himself a cup. He drank it all down in one gulp and then smiled. "Ah~ Good cup of coffee!"

"Thanks," Coco said under her breath before looking at Milly. "What were you guys working on last night?"

"Trying to figure out that curse," Milly gave a big yawn and pawed at for the coffee. She had a brush tangled into her hair like she had been trying to brush it threw a little while ago.

"Find anything?" Coco asked.

"Not unless you count "accidental death" a legit curse lifting," Moxxy deadpanned.

"Nope," Coco said, registering everyone's upset and picking up her own mug of coffee. She also picked up the cursed and book and walked into the main lobby. "Let me try to find something. Maybe I could-"

"Hey, Blitzo~!" Luna came into the office and walked over. She looked just as tired and worn out as everyone else, only more angry. "Some assholes downstairs are coming up. Says its life or death."

"OH goody!" Blitzo clapped, now perking. "We might have a client!"  
"Now!?" Moxxy looked terrified that he's have to work after pulling a useless all nighter. "But it's not even 7am! Who would want someone dead before 9!?"

"Doesn't matter!" Blitzo sung out. He then turned to Coco and began pushing her out a back door to the back exit of the building. "You! Out! We can't have anyone suspicious of a human in the office! Wear the horns and wait outside until this is all over!"  
"Can I at least keep the book then!?" Coco begged holding on to it tighter, it making her feel safer.

Before she knew it, Blitzo had pushed her out onto a back balcony over looking the early empty alleyway-street of Imp city. From here, Coco realized that there was apparently no distinction between night or day since the the red sky seemed the same now as it was yesterday afternoon.

"Fine," Blitzo said, putting her firmly out and then putting the devil horns more evenly on her head. "Just be quiet and. Stay. Here."

"Okay," Coco said, taking the warning seriously.

Blitzo shut the door on her and left her out there. It was still hot and humid, but there was a slight breeze to make you think it was morning. With no sun or moon, Coco couldn't tell how anyone kept track of time. There was no "early morning" light. Just less darkness from total night. Apparently the sky here had only two parts: red and night.

"Hmm?" Coco felt something down at her wrist and pulled it up to check out the compass. "What's going on?"

The needle was pointing downwards and vibrating quickly again, just like it had done before when a group of demons had been behind that door. Coco looked down over the railing but didn't see anyone else in the alleyway.

'That's strange,' Coco thought. She checked out her wrist and saw it was still going on, now it was bugging her. 'Okay, I guess it wouldn't hurt just to check it out to be sure.'

Coco carefully crawled over the ledge and let herself down off of the balcony. It was three stories up, so she jumped down to the next balcony and then jumped down on top of the closed dumpster before landing back on the alleyway street. She brushed off her shirt and kept the book carefully close to her.

"This thing is heavy," she complained, taking off the belt to Moxxy's pants and making a make-shit book strap to her leg with it. "There. At least it fits well."

When she looked around, the only other living thing she saw was what she guessed was a homeless demon sleeping on his cardboard sign.

'Nothing,' Coco thought as she held up her wrist again. The needle was now pointing down the road and moving even more erratically in place. She gave it a confused look. 'But nobody's here. What's this thing even try to-'

Before she finished that thought, she heard two gun shots come from up stairs in the office!

Coco looked up, but as she did, a car came barreling down the alley towards her. She flattened herself against the wall to let it pass but the car stopped right beside her. Before she knew it, the door had opened and two pairs of arms pulled her into the car without her knowing.

"Get the IMP!" She heard someone shout as she was pulled in. She couldn't even scream before the doors were shut.

The homeless demon had woken up with the gun shots and saw the girl pulled inside. When he looked back up, the car had back up towards him slowly with a window rolling down. He heard the sounds of the same girl struggling and yelling a bit, but saw the long red face of another demon pop out.

"When those freaks upstairs come out again," he began, flipping a gold coin at the demon. "Tell 'em Miss Honey wants to talk to them in person. She'll be entertaining with their little friend while she waits."


	5. Miss Honey

It was the most awkward car ride ever.

The first five minutes consisted of kicking, screaming, scratching, threatening; and the demons all took it like champs. But, because of general hopelessness and exhaustion, Coco couldn't maintain the fight in her and instead started to unwillingly calm down.

When she finally did, after minutes of tirelessly huffing and breathing, Coco got a good look of the six demons around her. They all were the standard bulking red-skinned demons you have imagined as body guards, but these guys came with a distinct and similar feature. They all had some kind of yellow gash or mark of scar running across their faces, and some kind of small horn piercing on their foreheads that didn't match with their own personal horns.

'This is really weird,' Coco thought, sinking in deeply and reaching for a seat belt. Even in hell, old habits of safety mattered to her and she buckled herself in. 'Are they all in a gang or something? Do… demons even technically have gangs?'

She started to notice that her lack of understanding demon culture and hierarchy was really starting to hurt her.

What was even weirder was now none of them were talking but they were all glaring at her intensely. It made sense, since earlier she had been kicking, biting, scratching, screaming; but it was still too unnerving to be as simple as a grudge. It looked like they were expecting something.

"Um," Coco started. Her mind couldn't really tell if talking right now was a good idea, but since the book was strapped to her leg and this curse mark was apparently protecting her, it seemed like a waste if she didn't ask them questions like what the fuck were they doing. "So, this is the second time I've been kidnapped in two days. How are we? Are we uh… Uh, are we going somewhere? Or am I the only one going somewhere? Did you… You know, even mean to pick me up or was I just the first thing you saw in the alleyway?"

And maybe that third cup of coffee was kicking in and making her chatty.

One of the demons looked particularly annoyed at her, then eye balled one of the bigger demons in the middle sitting across from Coco. She picked up on the vibe that he was the boss around here, mostly from the fact he was the one who just looked the most imposing. She felt quiet ridiculous now being the only one strapped in, but was kind of looking for answers at this point.

"You can't shut your mouth, can you kid?" He growled slightly and talked without moving much of his mouth. "That's the theme at IMP, huh?"

"Well, you haven't told me anything…" Coco half-glared over. Who was this big scary demon calling a kid? She's in graduate school!

"Fuckin' bitch," one of the others said, leaning over to the boss-man. "Come on! Let me show her how to keep quiet!"

'EEEEP!' Coco mentally screamed with eyes wide opened. 'THIS IS AFFIRMING EVERY STEREOTYPE!'

"Shut your mouth!" The boss grabbed that demons face and forced it through the back seat. "Jeez! Can't get any peace around here!"

"He's new," the demon to his side explained, taking out his phone to text someone. "Can't control Miss Honey's blood lust augment."

"Whatever. Still, needs to show some class in front of the new blood." He growled again and looked back at Coco, who straightened up more and swallowed some of her spit. "What? They picked you up as soon as you feel on the ground? You still smell like human's all over you. It's drivin' my boys crazy."

"I uh, yeah, um," Coco started, looking scared and relieved at the same time. Instead of furthering this explanation, she knew she should change the subject entirely. "Wh-Where am I going?"

"Hnnn, you'll be there soon enough." He looked at the other man and got a nod, turning back to Coco just to glare and threaten her. "What? Never been out of that shit hole you call a business? What are you? Don't look like no hit-man. Don't look like no slut either like the other two…"

"Office worker!" Coco immediately lied and began looking more and more anxious as he talked. He kept making her more nervous by not answering any of her questions. "What are you gonna do with me…"

"Make an' example'," he said, taking out a match box from his pocket and pulling out a match. "That big owl family's leader, Stollas. He's been poachin' on Miss Honey's territory down near the South Pentagram. Jus' so happen's, he gets IMP to take out some o' her associates up in the living world."

'Demons can have connections with the living world?' Coco perked up at that, the information being stored as interesting for later. But then remembered something else. 'Wait. Stollas. Stollas… Wasn't that a part of the name in this book?'

She wanted to reach down and unhook the book from her leg, but couldn't risk moving a muscle because she was pretty sure one of them would bite it off if she tried anything.

Yet, strangely enough, they were all being fairly civil. Restrained is more like it, but other than that one demon, they stayed still and seemed focused on something else entirely.

"Can't believe a pompous asshole like Stollas would actually hang around with a bunch of imps," the big man snorted, making a sound that was like some kind of disgusted gurgle. "Well, that fruit's pretty fucked up. It's all yous' imps flyin' around like you got some place to be where you don't belong."

"… huh?" Coco was incredibly confused by this man's lack of proper grammar. But, from what she could string together, it was meant to be offensive. "You mean… like… on Earth?"

"Fuckin' moron," he said staring right at Coco. "You some kind of retard?"

"We're not supposed to use that word anymore," one of the other demons pointed out.

"Shut the fuck up!" The boss shouted, turning back to Coco. "What kind of imp don' know the basic rules? You stay in your fuckin' territory! You stay with your fuckin' kind! And you stay out of the way of the big leagues…"

Coco backed up even more in her seat. The horror this guy was pushing was obvious, along with the… demon racism? That's what it sounded like.

"Isn't everywhere in Hell the same?" Coco asked carefully. "I mean… We-We all got here for the same reasons…"

"You think you're in the same league as us?" The big man laughed.

"Stupid new blood," one of the other demons chuckled.

"Must have signed on to the first group she could find," another sneered. "Looks like IMP ain't too picky either. Must pick up after whatever it can get."

Now Coco blushed and glared. Why were they saying all of this? Sure, she's not a big fan of Blitzo and the others, but they haven't really gone out of their way to kill her in the last few hours. In fact, they've been civil so far! This kind of insulting was, well, uncalled for!

"Anyone working for Stollas means they make an enemy of us." The boss began again, not exactly explaining his position but now explaining why he apparently hated her guts. "You IMP fuckers and-"

"I'm not an imp!" Coco shouted, finally getting angry about being misconstrued for a demon. Just a start of all the annoying things that have been happening.

"… Ha?" He said, getting more angry as she was now "mouthing off" to him in his own car in front of his men. "Then what the fuck are you?"

"I'm a- No wait." Coco remembered why she was pretending to be a demon again and immediately tried to take back everything she just said. "I am an imp."

"That's what I said!"

"No!" She tried to correct again with more conflicting information. "You said IMP like they IMP but um I'm an imp."

"What the fuck are you talkin' about?" Another demon piped in, confused by the fact he can't see the capital letters. "You're all imps!"

"Well, you see, it's uh, simpler than that but you're making it complicated." Coco attempted to explain again, now holding out her hands and going full on into English teacher mode. "Well, I'm an imp but I didn't mean to IMPLY that I'm also an IMP like-"

"Shut the fuck up before I eat your imp ass!" The boss said, completely tired and shutting down the whole thing.

"Yes sir…" Coco said, placing her hands on her knees and looking down at her shoes she borrowed from Milly.

It was a nice, tense, car ride after that.

-At IMP-

Moxxy was currently cleaning up the room while Milly was taking care of the body. About ten minutes ago, a small group of obviously strung up, half mind controlled demons came in threatening all around the place. One of them tried to hit Luna, she bit off his arm and Blitzo shot both of them. One was currently dead and the other, well, was holding his severed arm with one hand while Luna kept watch of him.

"I thought we had some kind of cleaning service for this?" Moxxy said obstantly as he scrubbed the carpet floors. Obviously annoyed his job right now was the most uncomfortable.

"Well, she said she wouldn't come on Saturdays anymore," Blitzo said, walking out of the bathroom where he finished washing his hands and now stood and looked at the office carpet. Between the blood stains and summoning circle fire rings, he couldn't tell which ones looked more unprofessional. "And I just had these floors steamed…"

"Hey, shouldn't we be interrogating this fucker for trying to bust this place?" Luna said, gesturing with her thumb at the demon currently half whimpering and half foaming at the mouth.

"Don't you see the mind augmentation horn?" Blitzo said, walking up and pointing at the small metal horn that had been shot at and busted up. "That thing completely fucked with his mind! You'd be lucky to teach how to wipe his own ass after that!"

"So why did he come here again?" Moxxy asked, looking back and forth between the hit man and Blitzo with a quirked brow. "I know I heard something about territory, but we're not in any terf war."

"Stollas kind of is, I think," Blitzo said, turning to ponder the situation a bit. Then he looked down some more at the other demon and tried to remember if he'd seen anything like him. "Uh, he looks like some underling of one of those demons who are trying to make it big near the south of the Pentagram. I don't know. Guess they wanted to mess with us 'cause we're on Stollas' payroll."

"Didn't they say they wanted the book?" Milly asked, popping her head out of the butcher-room door while holding a bloody handsaw.

"I thought he said he wanted the amulet?" Moxxy said, looking just as confused.

"He didn't know what he wanted!" Blitzo cleared up, shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands in the air. "These guys are all brainwashed! It'd be a miracle if they remembered their own names. It was all just for show anyway! If they wanted anything they would have just snuck in here and taken it."

"They had a car waiting," Luna said, gesturing to the window. "It took off as soon as you fired the shot gun."

"Oh, God dammit!" Blitzo yelled, looking throughly annoyed. "Now we've got to deal with even more of a mess! Ugh! Guess this means I should call Stollas later…"

It took only a few moments for them to notice something was missing.

"Where's the human?" Moxxy asked, looking from side to side and seeing no one. "Doesn't she have the book with her?"

"I took her outside," Blitzo said, now smiling as he turned to go bring Coco back inside. "Good thing to! The kid would have had a heart attack if she'd seen… No wait. Now I WISH I had kept her in here."

Slightly regretting the chance to cause a natural death, Blitzo walked over to the back door to let Coco back in. He was reluctant to state that he no intention of killing her anymore, but he also didn't want to rule out death being a possible advantage.

When he opened the door and blinked several times, seeing Coco wasn't there, he tried to see if she had magically started flying. Or became invisible. But with no furtive results, he found that she had instead not followed his instructions and had actually moved from the place he put her.

"Goddamit," Blitzo muttered, facepalming and groaning in aggravation. "Could this morning get any worse?"

"What's happening?" Moxxy asked, walking up from behind Blitzo and standing next to him.

"Looks like the human's gone," Luna said, looking over Blitzo's shoulder and then going back to monitor the mentally challenged demon.

"Again?" Milly said, popping her head out of the doorway to look and confirm this.  
"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Moxxy shouted, turning to look at Blitzo. "Why'd you let her go outside alone!?"

"Because I thought she was smart enough to understand I don't care about it if she get's killed out here!" Blitzo snapped back, letting down the emergency ladder on the fire escape and stepping down. "What I DO care about is she has the book with her. Now let's go find her rotting corpse and take it back."

"Such a pleasant idea," Moxxy mocked half heartidly as he followed Blitzo down along with Milly.

They got down to the alleyway and looked around but saw no blood nor summoning mark or anything particularly out of the ordinary. They did see the dumpster top had some kind of imprint like someone had fallen on it and that there were tired marks on the street, but they didn't know if they could connect them.

"I don't see anything wrong here," Milly said, looking down the alleyway carefully.

"Maybe she didn't run away," Moxxy said, bending down and looking at the tire marks critically. "These things are new, smells like they stopped and started again real quick."

"What? You think she hailed a taxi or something?" Blitzo asked, looking at the marks beside Moxxy. "Great. Now we're looking all over the city for the book again!"  
"She doesn't seem like she'd just run away like that," Milly said, pondering what could have happened. "I don't think she's just leave for no reason too…"

"So maybe she didn't want to leave?" Moxxy suggested, standing up and looking at Milly. "Maybe something happened and she got pulled away into a car when she didn't want to!"  
"That's absurd!" Blitzo said, putting his hands on his hips. "Why would anyone want to take a tiny, stupid looking not-imp for no reason! I mean, who would legit want to take her if they don't know she has the book with her?"

At that, they heard someone coughing and looked down to see the usual homeless demon sitting up on his cardboard and looking awkward.

"Hey!" Blitzo called over from where he was standing. "You seen a small, stupid looking girl imp around here?"

"Got pulled into a car," the homeless demon said.

"What!" Moxxy shouted, then ran up and grabbed the demon by his tattered remains and held him up with such a strong intense look. "You saw it happen!? Who was it? Where did they go? When did it happen!"  
"Mox, chill out!" Milly said, running over and standing beside Moxxy. "This guy is constantly drugged up! Who knows what he remembers!"  
"Wait wait wait," Blitzo said, sliding over and looking eye to eye with the demon while Moxxy still held him straight up in the air. He was strangely a lot calmer than the rest of them as he came up to interrogate the demon, obviously playing good-cop to Moxxy's insane and panicked-hit man."You said you saw it? You see who did it?"

"J-J-Jus' that they all ki-kind of looked alike," he sputtered out.

"Big, red and ugly?" Blitzo asked, describing the two men who had come in the office earlier. "Big yellow scar across the face? Small metal horn?"

"Y-Yeah. Said he' was with sum demon called "Miss Honey"…."

"Oh my god…"

Blitzo turned and sighed, walking a few steps away and muttering to himself. Moxxy and Milly looked at each other confused before dropping the homeless demon and walking up to Blitzo.

"Sir?" Moxxy began, walking up and seeing Blitzo trying to work something out in his head. "What's happening? Who are those people?"

"And who's Miss Honey?" Milly asked, looking up interested. "Some kind of rich demonese?"

"Worse," Blitzo said, turning around to look at the other two a tense and structured look. "She's a real WASP."

"…. Uh, okay?" Moxxy said, taking that in and thinking on it. "You mean, like the acronym or the bug?"

"Well, both technically," Blitzo didn't fully explain. He sighed before shaking his head and going into it. "She's an old kind of heiress to this South pentagram family that controls the Hell concrete monopoly. They've been gaining a lot of power lately, trying to shake up old rivalries and break alliances since she's taken over some of the businesses. But she doesn't have any of the actual power the other groups and families have got. All she's got are a bunch of annoying foot soldiers she uses to push around the smaller territory leaders in to listening to her."

"So she's like, some kind of higher authority?" Milly asked looking confused. "Is she the one who tried to break in here and steal from us?"

"Why go to all the trouble of trying to shoot us up or kidnap a kid?" Moxxy asked, looking confused at why this would happen. "Most higher authority demons stay out of this kind of thing! Why's she trying to expand territory?"

"She's been trying to shake up the balance of established power for awhile now," Blitzo sighed, now looking down at the tire tracks and going down a list of places this could go to. "She's one of those 'business rich' demons, and she's not even the one who started it. She inherited it second hand from her ex. Now, she's trying to gain the power and backing to start taking territory from demons like Stollas to get her rep up. But all she's got is some personal magic to brainwash demons into loyal soldiers. But not the very smart ones it seems."

"So… What do we do now?" Moxxy asked, looking at Blitzo concerned.

Moxxy and Milly looked at each other with tense and anxious looks. This sort of situation was really above them, they weren't involved with territory fights and often stayed out of the higher up politics as it was dangerous for most small imps to get involved. But they both were clearly worried about Coco. She had their book and, although it was still a confusing situation, they did care about her enough to want to make sure she's safe.

Blitzo stared and thought about what this meant. Miss Honey was known as a construction baroness, one of the few controlling things like cement and hell fire resistant materials. She was also known as someone who was fairly weak and was looking to add new powerful allies to her team. She'd more likely want IMP on her good side instead of making a backwards enemy of Stollas. So kidnapping a kid made no sense…

'She wouldn't know that Coco's a human,' Blitzo thought, remembering how Coco was dressed. Her human smell still strong but she was mostly passable if they didn't put her in front of any strong lights. 'And there's no way she'd know about the book and the deal without seeing the curse mark. But, if she did see it, she'd either want to kill Coco and take the book.. Or, if she's smart enough to see the curse mark, she'd probably try to go ahead and turn her over like the others…'

The thought of that little metal horn digging into her forehead, her pretty green eyes getting a slashed scar. Her voice screaming out instead of singing…

"Get Luna," Blitzo said darkly, turning around to look down the alleyway with a furrowed brow. "And tell her to bring the one armed idiot. We'll need him to get our foot in door…"

-Meanwhile-

The car stopped about twenty minutes later and Coco was pulled and dragged out of the car as unnecessarily rough as possible.

'I'm cooperating!' Coco complained as two demons dragged her by her shoulders to keep her feet to keep up with them. 'Why would I stop being scared out of my mind now? It's not like we stopped to get fried chicken or anything…'

She saw she had been taken to some sort of old style construction factory with thick outside walls and tall cylinder shaped towers with black smoke pouring into the red sky.

'And there's pollution here,' Coco sarcastically thought as she looked up, the scene making her wish she had a face mask. She was now a pro at repressing her inner most fears and insecurities by pointing out environmental issues. 'Am I gonna die of cancer before we figure this all out or am I just gonna get killed here today?'

They walked her in and she looked around as they pushed her through. From what she saw, there were more and more of these demons with strange yellow scars slashed across their faces and one or two different metals horns sticking out of their foreheads or some other part of their face. They all seemed to be working with blank looks on their faces and moving like they were on some kind of old computer program.

They took her deeper and deeper into the factory without telling her where she was going and with her asking fewer and fewer questions as they went on. Thing like: "Where are we going?" "Where are we?" "How did we get here?" "Why are we here?" "Why is that guy carrying a fire extinguisher?" "How come there're no windows?" "Where's the bathroom?" "How come you guys aren't blinking?".

The questions stopped as soon as it started getting even hotter, they were getting even closer to the center of the factory and probably even closer to the center of all the dangerous stuff. Coco started to sweat, this was getting unbearable. The heat was already suffocating enough, but now the mystery and tenseness was getting to an unbearable point. Would somebody just start talking now!

"You came back?" A deep yet feminine voice called out. "I hope you brought something worth my interest…"

They pushed through a set of heavy doors into what looked like the inside of one of those fireplace/towers. It was all dark with only a bright red light coming from the floor. The heat was intense but managed by some kind of internal cooling on the concrete ledges and floors surrounding the place. When they walked forward, Coco noticed that the concrete floors were all being held up above something that looked like churning magma, it was glowing hot red and made a noise like the ground was crushing underneath.

'And I regret everything ever…' Coco concluded, looking up and swallowing the last bit of moister in her mouth. It was strange how Coco kept finding herself in this similarly hopeless situation and how she still was able to be surprised. 'How am I gonna get out of here alive this time…'

When they finally stopped, Coco saw there was a tall woman wearing a pencil skirt business suit standing across from the group. She had long black hair that stopped at a point down to her waist which was cut into a perfect hour glass figure. But instead of a body like a model, her entire body was cut into points and angles like there were no soft parts about her. Even her face was slightly pointed, although it had a slightly haunting beauty with pale-pale skin and eye lashes that swooped like wings.

As Coco looked on, she began seeing even more details that made the woman less and less human looking than at first glance. Her eyes had no white in them, the entire area was filled in black with only a bit of red color to make it look like a regular eye. Aside from her dark black hair, she had a stripe of yellow hair falling across her face like bangs that gave her a more intense look. And along with her dramatic waist line, Coco noticed something even more dramatic about it: She had a second set of arms right under the first pair!

'Ooooookay, sexy nightmare fuel.' Coco started sweating more as some insecurities started surfacing with this. 'I'm now scared and feel stupid because my shoes aren't fancy enough for this kidnapping…'

"What's this?" The woman asked, narrowing her eyes like Coco with a confused and almost annoyed glance. Both of her arms crossed and she gave the boss man a look. "I told you to bring the boss with you. Why'd you bring me a child?"

"I'm 27…" Coco said under her breath, feeling more and more pain as her age was still being mistaken and it was starting to make her self conscious.

"They opened fire on two of our men," he said, putting his hand on Coco and pushing her forward closer to the woman. "This one was near the back. Our men saw her going in with the other two imps last night. Looks like she works for them."

"A hostage?" The woman sneered, not yet looking at Coco directly. "I told you I don't want attention for this! I wanted a product! How are we going to keep Stollas from knowing if we have a hostage!"

Coco stood still and straightened up stiff. She saw there were no direct exists in here or really any way out other then up and out the chimney. There were different ledge-like floors above them that had fire escapes connecting them, but she couldn't see how she'd be able to escape by them or even reach one to get away. So she was left here alone…

"What's your name?" The woman had walked up to Coco and began examining her closely. Her eyes makes quick work of the girl as she searched for any threat or advantage here. "You don't look like an imp."

"I-I'm new here," Coco sputtered out, trying to lean away and hold her own breath. She was glad now that it was so hot in here, the air might hide how much like a human she sells. "I um, just started with the others at IMP…"

"I see," she straightened up and looked down at Coco, unimpressed and mostly uninterested. Now Coco could see how the woman towered above her. She was at least six and a half feet tall! "Useless then. You probably don't know anything about us? Do you?"

"N-No, ma'am." Coco said, going to being completely polite. "S-S-Sorry…"

"Hmm~" She smirked at that, enjoying the fear and respect she pulled out of intimidating Coco. It was like she was craving this kind of feeling. "Of course not~ Well, I'm Miss. Honey. And this" gesturing to the entire factory. "Is my estate. Everything in Hell, every road and building, is made from MY product. Which means… Everything in Hell SHOULD be mine~"

There was a quick hold for silent, dramatic effect that Coco got the feeling Miss Honey was implying. And it served to be the second weirdest thing about today.

'That's a Biiiiiiiiiig ego you've got there,' Coco mentally sweated. It was one thing to have a demon towering above you, but one with an ego problem? Well, it looks like she found something that could distract her long enough to at least by time and make a plan with. 'If she doesn't want anything then I might be able to sneak out and-'

Miss Honey took one of Cocos' wrists and held it up to see. She pulled Coco's arm so hard that it stretched uncomfortably, but luckily she had only grabbed her left wrist instead of her right.

"Hm," Miss Honey looked at the wristband with an X and rolled her eyes, letting go of Coco. "A suicide? Really now, is that something a Lady would do?"

"I uh, um," Coco stuttered, backing up a little from the woman and holding her arm.

'What is up with people and grabbing me!?' She internally cried and wished she could make that strange fire circle on command. 'I wanna go.. back to the other place where they're mostly not trying to kill me again…'

It was then apparent that even though she didn't directly want anything from her now, it didn't mean getting out would be any easier.

"Do you actually know how to speak?" She continued, stepping forward and moving like her lower half had a mind of its own. She enjoyed the sense of power she got from someone being too shocked to answer back. It was fun to play with. Fun to taunt. "Suicide, guh. Just awful. Pathetic really. Can't imagine how they took a new blood just… because they…"

She stopped when her eyes landed on Cocos' left leg. Coco was rubbing her left wrist, the woman had quiet a grip, and looked up and saw what Miss Honey was staring at.

'The book!' Coco mentally panicked and stood straight back up and covered the book with both hands. Useless now that Miss Honey had already seen it. 'Shit! What's she even thinking about now…'

Coco waited a moment before she looked back up again and felt her stomach drop another level. Miss Honey had completely turned around and was staring intensely at Coco's leg. And around her, Coco could feel the other demons become more interested as well.

"Maybe you aren't such a waste of time after all?" Miss Honey said, the darkest kind of smirk starting to appear on her face, the angles of her body becoming even sharper than before. "Do you know what kind of book you have there… dear?"

"Uuuh, y-yeah," Coco said, carefully pressing the book to her leg. She was sure this woman wasn't interested in answering some important questions that Coco had.

"I don't think you do." She brought up one set of her hands and let her finger nails tap against themselves aggressively. Her long nails were jet black and made light 'cling's against each other like metal (visual: Coraline's Other Mother). "Oh~ What a treat~! You have something I've wanted, something of Stollas', that I've wanted for so~ Long~~!"

Her eyes went wider, the black becoming deeper with a feeling like she was going to eat Coco up. And it was obvious because Coco felt a primal instinct of fight or flight and she wanted to fly!

Coco immediately turned around, knowing her body was making her move and wanted to leave because this was DANGEROUS. But it took three steps and she crashed directly into one of the big red demons. Who then grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her directly around to face Miss Honey again.

'Oh fuck,' Coco's mind played. Every image that showed the worst possible situation started to come up and her heart began to beat harder and harder like it was playing the drums. 'No no no! I don't want to be here! I didn't want to be here! If some magic stuff could happen now, please start!'

But luck doesn't quiet work like that; and apparently, neither do demonic possession curses.

"Oh~ No, no, no!" Miss Honey sang, walking up to Coco with long quick steps like she was going to unwrap a present. Her voice consolingly and sweet sounding but with the undertone of a malicious man-eater. "Dear, don't go! We haven't talked enough! Oh~ I heard about how IMP had been managing a business in the Living World, so close to some… friends of mine~ And I had been wondering; how does IMP, run by such little idiots, manage something like that?"

Miss Honey stopped and let a long finger from one of her lower arms reach over and brushed Coco lightly on the cheek. Her heart panicked, she imagined the burning sensation under the nail like fire on her skin. But the pain felt real and like it left a mark even after she pulled it away.

"Now I know~" Miss Honey sang, enjoying this coy threatening play even more than the taunting from before. "Oh~ What a nice present you've brought me, my dear! You seem so much smarter now! I'm sure you'll understand how easy it is to work here in Hell after you've switched sides around and-"

"I'm not giving it to you." Coco said firmly. Her sense and reason coming up along with her panic as she felt sweat hit the back of her neck and she started to shake under the different demons' grips. "The book is mine and IMPs! You can't have it!"

'I don't know why I'm saying this.' But Coco's mind had flashed to what the woman could do, what this woman WOULD do! She had already had so many demons who looked washed out and dead working here, imagine the kind of torture she'd spread around Hell AND the Living World with this book in her hands. 'But I'm not letting anyone who'd do something like this ever touch this book!'

Coco's out burst had cut Miss Honey off and made the other demons eye her with new rage. She felt the two demons' hands dig into her shoulders sharply like they meant to break the bones and she had to gulp air down into her stop to stifle the scream that wanted to pierce out. But Miss Honey raised a hand and stopped them, the pain not melting away but serving as the warning she wanted.

And then Miss Honey smiled.

"Do you know how I got to where I am?" Miss Honey asked but didn't ask. She looked off to the side with an excited grin, like she loved telling this story. Loved telling it to herself more and more, especially now that she believed she was getting something she wanted. "Yes, yes yes. Clever marriages, a clever divorce and lots of clever little deals here and there. But! The most important thing you need in any hostile take over…"

Her lower left hand snapped and suddenly, Coco saw the four demons move away from her and surround Miss Honey on either side. The looks on their faces were so strange, it was like they were only half awake and partially thinking while their bodies were moving on computer program. Her eyes smirked at Coco, two demons at either side of her who kept their hands on either shoulder and now also grabbed either of her wrists.

Now, it went from 100% scary to FUCK THIS IS HELL AND CAN'T GET ANY SCARIER THAN THIS EVER IN WORLD OF EVER!

"Are loyal, thoughtless, foot soldiers~." Miss Honey sang out. She reached behind her ear and pulled out something small and sharp looking, holding it in-between her eyes. "Something great about this body, it produces a nice little chemical cocktail that melts out parts of the pre-frontal cortex and fills it in with just some nice loyalty filled jelly produce~ And I can even make the little needles myself!"

Now, the big boss stepped up in front of Coco, staring down at her with the same half-lidded expression as everyone else. Coco shivered more, his look telling her she was even in less control of what was about to happen then he was.

"Maybe you just need some convincing then~~" Miss Honey said, so excited to have something this fun to do.

Coco didn't need another reason to feel hopeless. It already felt like her heart had stopped, like whatever pain they would inflict, she had imagined and already experienced. But just this, this pressure and sense of expectation, was enough to starting chocking her on the inside and flood her with fear…

The damn protection circle really liked pulling on her chain.

The boss only had to take one swipe at her, tearing down the sleeve of her right arm before touching her skin and the fire exploded all around her! The circles' hot air fired through and tour through the arms and bones of these demons, forcing them back and completely throwing the other two behind her over the railing and down the to the bottom.

Coco couldn't see what happened to them but she heard what sounded like some kind of swallowing sound at the bottom and sizzling followed after. But Coco was more focused on getting her bearings again. Once the fire settled back down and she was left alone, Coco started breathing again and her higher senses came back again. Her breathing was hard and deep, like she was getting punched inside of her chest with her deep breathes. Sweat soaked the back of her shirt and her hair stuck to her shoulders. But she finally had space and felt a bit safer since when she first got here.

'Thank god,' Coco's heart beat like a snare drum and her shoulders started to settle back. Some kind of reassurance also began to pour over like cold water as she stood there breathing. 'Looks like that circle won't leave me alone for awhile…'

Even though she wasn't sure if it was protecting her or the book at the moment, she felt relief. Coco was protected. But she wasn't out of danger yet…

The boss demon had been pushed back and flung across the floor and landed in front of Miss Honey. A long streak of blood under him as he grabbed a bloody stump where his arm should be. She looked down at him with an unpleased face, like she was looking down at a dying race dog she had run into the ground.

"Hm." She growled lightly under her breath before looking back up at Coco with a nonchalant expression. She noticed the long curse mark tattoo shaped like a seven circle double pentagram on her upper arm and understood how this complicated things. "So, I guess you're the owner now?"

"Kind of funny what 30 bucks buys ya', huh?" Coco said, an excited smirk coming to her face from all the adrenalin being kicked into her system.

The other demons attempted to move, but Miss Honey raised up an arm to signal them to stop. Coco was already poised to jump away, bouncing a little on her feet from the sudden energy. Human survival instincts sure pack a fun extra chemical cocktail of their own!

"Well that's no good to me," Miss Honey rolled her eyes and then sharped them down on Coco. Not in the mood for fun and games when someone was now indirectly threatening her position. "So what are you? Stollas' new slut I assume."

"I'm… ew. NO." Coco stopped and stood straight up with a grossed out look. She hasn't even met this guy yet but she already knew that should be taken as an insult. "What in the hell is wrong with you people? Is it something in the water?"

"Oh! Whatever!" Miss Coco said, snapping her upper half right hand above her head. "So annoying!"

Again, the same demons surrounded her but only outside the parameter of the burnt protection circle. They seemed tense to tread closer but still angry and focused. Miss Honey started walking over, going ahead and removing the Boos man by picking him up with one lower hand and throwing him over the railing after the other two.

"Useless!" Miss Honey complained for a minute before giving a new sadistic smile to Coco. "There's nothing I hate more than useless people! I hate useless things, I hate things that get in my way or try to take down something I built!"

Her features turned up and got sharper, more bug like the closer she came to Coco. She walked in-between two of her body guards and stood in front of Coco, stepping on the line of the circle and making her sweat. Coco knew the circle wouldn't come back again so soon, and she knew it probably wouldn't protect her from just anything!

"I guess you're pretty useless if IMP doesn't care to lose you." A chuckle came from Miss Honeys' throat as she stared at Coco, making her feel like a worm facing a yellow jacket. "So! If you're not Stollas' property and IMP doesn't mind throwing you away, I guess that means your body is up for grabs~!"

She didn't need to spell out what that meant. Coco's eyes went wide and she tried turning around to dive off and take her chances with a fall! Just again, just two steps out of the circle and two demons caught her under her arms and turned her back around to face Miss Honey! Coco thrashed and tried to pull away but was stuck by pure Demon strength.

"Now now, my dear~" Her voice got higher ditched, losing it's feminine tone and becoming more taunting and artificial. She took one hand and again, pulled out a long sharp needle from the back of her head and held it up steadily like a surgeons knife. "Don't be so scared! It only hurts for a minute! And then, you forget the pain. You forget everything! You'll have your precious little book and you're precious little life and body. And me? I'll have your mind…"

"NO!" Coco twisted her head and tried to kick as she struggled. The demons pulled her arms out tighter, making it easier to see her face as Coco reverted to twisting and turning her neck from side to side. "Leave me alone! Let me go! I'm not one of your toys! You can't keep me like this!"

"Don't move now!" Miss Honey said, crouching down and grabbing Coco's face with one hand. She held her stead and let one of her lower hands rise up and coat itself with a strange yellow acid the secreted from her skin. "I'd like to keep your pretty green eyes for myself~"

Miss Honey aimed the needle right in-between Coco's eyes and smiled as she saw tears start to fall down Coco's face. Her expression scrunching up into a hopeless plea.

"What a nice expression~ I hope it gets stuck like that!" Miss Honey cheered, admiring the sense of pure terror she triggered.

'Please,' Coco's mind begged. Begged the book, the voice, one of the imps, anyone. 'Someone, please help me…'


	6. A totally improvised rescue

**-On one side of Imp City-**

"Alright, do we have everything?" Blitzo asked, checking his own man bag and scanning everyone as they waited out front of IMP for their taxi to arrive. "Come on, people! I wanna make sure we have everything now before we get in to the murder and realize we forgot something and have to stop!"

"How are we going to stop a murder when we're in the middle of one?" Moxxy asked, looking for a clarity check as he didn't understand any of Blitzos' logic.

"That's a dumb question," Blitzo brushed it off and went back to personal inventory. "Milly, what do you have?"

"Pitch fork and hand grenades!" Milly said enthusiastically and opening up a fanny pack. "I also packed some granola bars in case we get hungry."

"Good!" Blitzo cheered, looking next at Moxxy. "And you, Moxxy?"

"I'm carrying the guns and extra rounds of ammunition," Moxxy dully said, holding out a shot gun and turning on the safety. "I made sure there's enough rounds for all of, plus I took the liberty of carrying several paring knives and a-"

"Great!" Blitzo took the shot gun for himself and smiled at Luna. "And do you have everything you need, Lunie?"

"I've got the miserable half brain and my phone for blackmail," Luna said, then pointing her thumb at the still mostly brain dead demon that was holding its arm and now drooling. "Why am I in charge of this thing? We should just put a diaper on it and send it back on its own."

"Now Lunie, we need this asshole to get us back to where they took Coco and to annihilate everything that gets in our way~" Blitzo cheered before seeing the taxi arrive. "Okay! Remember people. This is a rescue. That means, we are okay with taking hostages and excessive cursing."

"We are critically unprepared for this job description…" Moxxy said, looking up at the taxi.

Everyone picked up everything and threatened the driver while Luna strapped the bleeding-drooling demon in the front seat. Everyone began piling into the taxi, but Blitzo stopped suddenly and started looking out into the distance with an uneasy look.

"Uhhh, sir?" Moxxy asked, sticking his had out of the taxi and giving Blitzo a confused look. "What's happening?"

"Get in the car already," Luna said, rolling down the window and sticking her head out to glare over at him. "We're wasting time."

"Yeah…" Blitzo turned and made an uneasy smile while looking away. He was playing with his fingers in an awkward fashion like he was trying distract himself and appear normal. "Well, listen… I was just wondering… Maybe, this whole thing is a blessing in disguise?"

"…. what?" Moxxy didn't even bother looking deadpanned.

It's strange how quickly Blitzo became unsure of this rescue business. On the one hand, Coco has the book and her dying would definitely not be a good thing. On the other hand, it's a lot easier to steal back a book from a dead human. And because these demons are so high ranking, this whole thing could cause a lot of problems. The biggest thing IMP wouldn't be able to survive is getting involved with a demon turf war in the middle of the city.

"What!?" Moxxy shouted, now stepping out of the taxi and staring at Blitzo enraged. "Are you fucking kidding me? We just got everything ready to rescue her!"

"And I'm saying any job that requires grenades and shot guns for help and not fun is a waste of time, resources and our precious lives!" Blitzo explained, looking tense and aversive. "And what's the point? What are we doing all of this for? A human!"

"We're doing it for. The. Book." Moxxy spelled out.

"Come on guys," Milly said, sticking her head and tail out the door with a worried look. "Coco needs our help! The girl's stranded in here, and we're the ones' who are supposed to be saving her!"

"But are we? Really?" Blitzo asked, crossing his arms. "Say we rescue her? Hmm? And then we end up pissing off a major heiress and causing more problems for us. And who would rescue us?"

"That's not the point, sir." Moxxy tried to explain, trying to fight illogic with logic. "The point is, they broke into our office and then kidnapped our property! We can't just do nothing about that!"

"Yeah! We kidnapped her first!" Milly said.

"That's nothing to brag about, Milly." Moxxy reminded her.

"Will you guys quit bitching and make up your fucking minds!?" Luna yelled through the window. "The fucking amputee is bleeding everywhere and he just shit himself!"

At this point, the taxi driver was starting to get testy.

"Will you all fucking get in or fuck off!?" The taxi demon screamed.

"SHUT IT!" All four of IMP screamed back, throughly scaring him and putting the taxi driver in his place as the silent accompli.

While his tactic was terrible, Blitzo did have a point. Trying to save a human could start something none of them were prepared to finish. And if they were going to do this, they better be more than prepared to go all out. So he had to figure out something that made this rescue reasonable and logical to go through with.

"Okay, let's just compile a short list of reasons not to rescue her," Blitzo said, standing out straight and spreading out his arms while putting on his best business-sense persona. In general, he had had this list prepared since yesterday. He began counting this all off on both of his hands as if they were real reasons. "Number one, she's a bit of a know it all. Number two, she's annoying. Number three, she's not hot. Number four, she's only kind of cute in a way that reminds you of your childhood friend that you never wanted to fuck. Number five, she's chubby and stretches out my pants hip line. Number six, she's an idiot. Number seven, we don't really like her that much. Number eight, she's barely a mildly successful person but acts like she's better than everyone. Number nine, she's basically useless down here. Number ten-"

"Wow," Milly said, blinking a moment. "I'm starting to not like her anymore."

"Wasn't this supposed to be a short list?" Moxxy asked, covering his eyes and sighing about this entirely childish endeavor.

**-On the other side of Imp City in a Concrete Factory run by a brainwashing Wasp Demon. **

**Wait. **

**Was that too much? Maybe it was. **

**But you get the picture. There was a recap up there. Right? Cool. We're back.-**

It would take approximately 1.5 seconds for venom from the tip of Miss Honeys' needle to fill up the prefrontal cortex and dissolve most of the connecting tissue. It would be an entirely painless process since the nerves in the brain don't have sense receptors. Next, the venom would react to the dissolved tissue and fill it up with a kind of grey-matter protein, one that becomes a gelatinous mass and can be directly controlled by Miss Honeys directions.

It works like this: The emotion centers and decision making centers become totally controlled by directives of Miss. Honey. If she wants someone to fight for her, those receptors create rage and directs it at a target. If she needs them to be docile workers, she cuts off rage and dopamine but keeps a steady serotonin kick to keep the body working in a mentally dulled out state. And if she wants them to talk, well that's a bit complicated. Safe to say, the venom is less brain washing than logic dissolving.

And Coco felt the anticipation of the pin-prick so tightly she was already playing what it would feel like to have her brain dissolved almost at the moment of impact. The explicitly mental, excruciating pain was all to familiar and unbearable.

'Somebody please,' Coco continued to beg through the hopelessness. 'Please, please help me…'

And someone did come and help

**BOOM!**

With a shot gun.

The moment Coco felt one of the demons fall down and let go of her, everyone stopped and turned to look and see none other than Blitzo holding the smoking gun!

"Don't you touch one more hair on my employee you second rate excuse for a slut!" Blitzo shouted, now aiming the gun directly at Miss Honey.

"…" Coco took the moment to step back away from the needle before comment. "Yeah. Good timing…"

Standing across the way, Blitzo stood out holding a shot gun with Moxxy and Milly at both of his sides. Luna stood near the back, dragging behind her what looked like a zones out red body guard being lead by a thick rope around his waste. Blitzo brought back up! And his back up brought… weapons. Miss Honey blinked a few times before narrowing her eyes in distaste at the imps.

"What!?" Miss Honey lowered her hand and stood up to her full 6ft status and snarled at IMP. "What are those complete fuck ups from IMP doing here?"

"How did she know that about us?" Moxxy asked Blitzo, trying to be discrete. "I thought that was a secret?"

'I'm feeling slightly less relieved and more worried now,' Coco thought, automatically cueing the fact that she pinned all her hopes on a bunch of demons who accidentally summoned her to Hell in the first place. 'Man I've got bad options…'

"Alright then," Blitzo called out, tipping down the barrel of his weapon and giving a grin over to Miss Honey. "How about we do this in a civil, business-like way. You hand over our employee and our property and we won't blow up one of your little business ventures as revenge for recking our office and my carpets. Sounds like a good deal?"

"Yeah!" Milly called out, fist bumping while holding something that looked like a trident. "Hands off of our girl!"

"Fucking cretans," Miss Honey slurred and bared her teether at all of IMP. "How the fuck did you even get in here!?"

"Hey! I don't have crabs, you bitch!" Milly shouted, pointing the pitch fork end of the trident at her.

"She said cretans, Milly. Not crustaceans." Moxxy told her.

"We used your lackie here," Luna said, holding up the armless stump of a man who was sputtering. "Guess that poison of yours isn't some quality product after all."

"So I'm gonna take that as a "no" on our diplomatic, business-like offer," Blitzo said, searching his jacket pocket for extra ammunition.

Before any further bad puns and shots could be fired, Coco ducked down out of demons' grips and ran behind them back to IMP! If she knew anything, she knew how to choose who to trust in quick moments.

"Don't let her get away!" Miss Honey screeched, screwing up her face even more. "I want my book!"

"And I want less stress!" Coco shouted, ducking down again and running right next to Moxxy while hiding behind Blitzo. She turned up and looked at him with a pleading, "help me I'm lost" expression of a 27 year old who hasn't slept in days and gave the most compelling plea she could make at that moment. "Let's. Go. Now."

The only thing that could be read in Coco's demand was a simple emotion: General desperation. After being pulled into both Hell and an unknown car, Coco was already exhibiting the signs of total emotional exhaustion that had been carried on since yesterday. And Blitzo knew he was entirely to blame. But…

"Yeah yeah yeah," Blitzo said, ignoring that request before aiming the shot gun again. "We'll get a taxi in a minute. But first! Let's take care of some business…"

The mental sound of a tire being blown out would aptly describe the expression on Coco's face. Absolute disbelief fulled with desperation and gassy antagonism.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Coco shouted, dropping most of her nice-ness and instead being completely honest. "Do you know what that woman is about to do to me?! Let's go!"  
"Are do you know what she'll do to us if we don't take care of this fucking thing now?" Luna barked back, her eyes going red as she turned to the other demons with her hand on her hip. "It's Demon Turf laws now, kid."

"Don't. Care. Go. Now." Coco spelled out in dark words.

Fear is such a strong human emotion, one that will consistently override logic and emotion before anything else. It can also easily drive humans to whatever measures it'll take them to avoid whatever it is that scares them.

"Sorry, but she's right." Moxxy said, also taking out a smaller machine rifle and cocking the gun before looking at Coco seriously. "If we don't do this now, they'll just come after us later."

"Better to take care of the mess right away~" Milly cheered, looking excited at the challenge. "Oh~ This will be fun!"

"You might want to cover your eyes," Blitzo said before he turned around to look at Coco and give a stern warning. "And for the love of God, whatever you do, don't move out of my sight or-"

Blitzo was a little too late on the stern warning since Coco was already walking away towards the door. The only bright side was that she was smart enough to know there's no way she was going to escape this mess on her own and was planning on hiding somewhere close by until it was all over.

"I'm done." Coco called out, not even turning her head around and walking towards a ladder where she could hide and creep into her happy place for a few minutes. "Just.. wake me up when the crazy stops."

"…" Blitzo stood there and stared in horror-rage as the human, yet again, ignored him and his sound, unprofessional and usually illogical advice. "… Remind me why we're not killing her again?"

Coco walked only five steps before already hearing bloody massacre sounds and ricocheting gun shots. She then covered her ears and attempted to walk away faster because this was doing one hell of a job on her nerves.

'This seriously can't be happening,' the denial part of Coco's budding psychosis began as she found the closest ladder and started climbing up. 'Recap: Unluckily purchased a bad book, demonic summoning and possession happened without my consent, I have murderers not trying to kill me or really keep me safe and now I'm almost in the middle of a gun fight… My life couldn't be anymore trash than it already is…'

She reached the top of the ladder and found herself on a winged ledge, a place slightly more above all the noise from bellow and where she felt at least safe enough to take a deep breath. She walked over to the wall, slid down and took off the book from her leg and looked at it.

"You mind explaining some of this for me?" She asked the cover with a glare. "Or, how about what this whole 'turf war' thing is?"

Again, the book flew open to an undisclosed page and sat there. Coco just stared at it for a moment, grieving the fact this was happening, and went back to talking to it.

"You're kind of an ass, you know?" Giving the top page a glare before pulling it back up into her lap.

The illustrations on the pages looked like a complex layered diagram of what Hell's hierarchy structure actually is. Coco had a vague idea of what people back on Earth described Hells' structure to be like since she read Dantes' Inferno once. But, this seemed to be completely different and more complex than a silly poem about how a guy hated so many people that he wrote a book about them getting seriously tortured was like.

It was of course divided between seven circles surrounding a center pentagram and layers of different "sub-section territories" cutting all over the map. Inside laid names of different demons with symbols and numbers ranking their influence and power over different parts of different spheres. It was a lot like looking over a really crowded and annoying pie chart.

"Well this is impossible to read," Coco complained before looking down at the moral compass on her wrist. "Okay, advice time. Which of these circles should I be looking at that'll explain this whole situation?"

The thick needle ran from its top position and first pointed to a circle on the top part near the pentagram. Coco moved her wrist towards it and the needle focused on one particular spot that was sort of messy looking. There was a large splash of what looked like liquid-moving blue-gray paint over a large portion of the area, mixed in with violent hyper yellow and a muddy green. When she focused on it, Coco could see that the yellow part had the name "Honey-Jack" written around it with the number 534. The edges of it was mixing in lightly under the large blue-gray mass that had "Stollas" written in it with the number 54,683+ written next to it.

"So we're in Miss Honeys' territory," Coco said to herself, touching the violent yellow hue. "It's a lot smaller than the other two, and it looks like she has a lot less supports than Stollas and the other guy. No wonder she wants this book so bad. But, uh, why do they have demon turf war stuff? It seems really confusing to-"

Now the book flipped over a few more pages and sat open on a page that was actually made up more of text than confusing diagrams.

"And again with the asshole move," Coco bitterly mumbled before looking back down and glaring at the book. "What the hell kind of a font is that? Retarded Helvetica? Elvish? Gibberish?"

From what Coco could gleam and semi-understand, the majority of the text went like this:

_"As demons were first deformed from their fall from truth, they began deforming every environment around them to make it different from where they came. And as they changed their land, they decided to change it so it would not be similar to other demons in the same place. And then, when they coveted what another demon made from the same materials, they desired their materials._

_And demons reached out for more, growing more and adapting more power to change what cannot be fixed or permanent to have the illusion of that. They ached for more, to devour everything so that it could be definite and understood. But they were never satisfied nor satiated._

_Demons covet power, for power creates influence that can cement dominance for short periods of time. Dominance allows them to materialize power and influence over certain other hemispheres, such as the Living World and the World all demons were born from. They may be able cut through those spaces and leave imprints of their power, echoing and making their influence and power in their territory even stronger…"_

That confusing bit of non-sense was going to take a few hours to digest and understand.

"I went to college for nothing," Coco said blankly, feeling depressed as she continued to stare at the page. "What the hell is all of this gibberish try to say?"

It didn't help that she had been so over confident in herself just last night about all of this.

"I'm sure I'm smart enough to figure this out~!" Coco mocked herself as she looked at the book, now angry. "UGH! Now I have to eat my own words! How am I supposed to help get myself out of Hell if I can't even read a fucking book that got me to here in the first place!?"

In a spur of rage, Coco held up the book over her head and began threatening to throw it over the railing and down into what she assumed was Hell-magma. The image was very clear in her mind, the sound and weight of it falling, the suction sound that would happen when its pages hit the surface, the feeling of it sinking in and heat consuming it and burning it and dissolving it.

But, she also felt the book was so heavy in her hands that she couldn't move it. Or, that it felt like chains were wrapped around her arms and bond her to the book. Or,

'This book would just take me over the railings with it,' Coco knew as she put her arms down and let the book sit comfortable on her lap. Easing itself in the safety that is Coco's self-preservation. 'And even if it won't, I'd still be more dead without it.'

The incredible rage that comes alongside the annoyance when you realize you're right about something that makes you look stupid is hard to control. It's even harder to like yourself when it happens, even if you know you were doing something logical. But it was just manifesting into an uncontrollable hatred towards a book.

"You could help me figure out how to use you, you know?" Coco said, holding up the book slightly so she was looking directly at it. "I could really use those magical protection powers you've got there. Maybe something that could get us out of her-AHHH!"

Coco didn't know it until it was too late but she had suddenly been picked up off the ground by the back of her neck and roughly held over the railings! She dangled and struggled violently until she could see behind her, and found the boss who had lost an arm was holding her up with his only good one!

"So! The fuckin' imp's got some kind of magic spell keepin' her together," the boss drawled out. He was bloody all over and seemed lopsided, but whatever pain he might have must not be processing since that mind control horn must have scrambled a lot of his reasoning centers. All Coco could focus on was the yellow scar and his red eye, it was bulging in and out and seemed to be completely blood shot with rage. "Real funny, eh? Thinkin' you could come up in here and take over whatever you wanted, playin' some kind of a game, eh?"

"You're the one who brought me here!" Coco screamed at him, clawing at his hands with one hand while she held on tightly to the book with her other. "Stop it! Or I'lll- I'll-"

"You'll what? Start fuckin' cryin? HA!" Blood mixed down his chin with spit and his crazed laugh came out. Looks like his own reasoning centers weren't working anymore. "I see what's goin' on. Can't use that book, can you? Must be our fuckin' luck, gettin' a real stupid imp here to fuck shit up. But she don't even know what she's doin'!"

He was right, Coco couldn't use that protection spell on command. Even worse, she wasn't sure why it would come up or what it would do to her if it happened more than once a day. She wasn't even sure if it could happen more than once a day. She wasn't even sure what all the book could even do…

"Well, you just ran out of your luck, bitch," he cheered, his smile creeping up into a sick smirk as he squeezed her neck tighter. "See, even if that thing was gonna do somethin' now like before, you'd just fall down and die anyway! HA! You think you're so strong just 'cause you got some of your friends around? Nah. Miss Honey wants the book. And she don't want just you. Looks like neither do your little buddies. So you can just keep turnin' red until you turn blue, and then we'll-"

**BOOOOOOM!**

The sound of a shot gun being fired filled Coco's ears and almost completely distracted her before she grabbed the hot railing bars right before she fell down to her death. Although her sweaty hand made her grip unsteady, she then felt a long, stick tail seep around her waist and help joist her up over the railing.

"Nobody gets to manhandle and threaten my employees but me!" Blitzo said, firing another shot into the corpse before stepping on it. "And haven't you ever heard of asking for consent before chocking someone? That's just bad manners."

Just as the ringing in her ears stopped, Coco looked up and was face to face with Milly and Blitzo, still holding the smoking gun where he shot down the nameless boss! Milly had saved her in the last minute with her tail just after Blitzo had fired the gun at the demon. Behind them, Coco could see both Moxxy and Luna slowly making their ways up towards them with heavily preoccupied looks on their faces.

"You okay, sweetie?" Milly asked, looking at Coco with a more relieved face. "That guy just stood up and ran up here! We got lucky today, huh?"

"Yeah, lucky… I'd call it that," Coco didn't know if she was using sarcasm or not. She was too busy breathing again. She touched where the demon had been holding her up with and felt a light bruise starting to form, but decided it was the least of her worries. "What happened? Did we win?"

"We're not even at the middle with this," Moxxy informed her, looking back behind him with a careful glare and observing their options. "The leader backed away somewhere and called for reinforcements! This place will be swarming with more zombie-demons if we don't get out of here fast!"

"But we gotta take care of this place and make sure they don't come back for us later!" Milly said, standing up and pointing across the way to some maintenance spot. "If we burn this place to the ground then that bitch won't come back to our turf since she won't have a strong hold nearby!"

Coco mostly blanked this out since her near-death experiences of today were taking too much of a toll on her. She wanted to just leave now, no matter how right and logical they were being with staying here. She just wanted to ignore the problem that would make and get somewhere safe and comfortable. And more than anything, she wanted to pretend this all wasn't actually happening.

Coco stood back up and started tying the book back onto her make-shift leg holster when Blitzo walked over to her and smacked her on the back of her head.

"I told you not to move!" Blitzo yelled at her, pointing his finger at her and glaring. He was so mad he wanted to hug her and tell her he was sorry. But didn't. "You know how worried I've been! That book could have fallen right into that bitches' hands if we hadn't come here to rescue your sorry ass!"

"But I-" Coco looked away and was trying to twist logic in a way to defend herself, rubbing the back of her head and avoiding all eye contact as she tried to think of something. "You said it, well, it was gonna… Wait. Do you mean the first time you said "Don't move" or the time that just happened?"

"One job!" Blitzo yelled out, exasperated at how she couldn't follow a simple direction and just had to be as stubborn as he is. "One, simple, job. Don't. Move!"

"Sir, I told you this would happen," Moxxy said like a know-it-all; shaking his head like a disapproving uncle. "Human curiosity. Such dumb little creatures. They never think that far ahead!"

"Can we drop this, now!" Luna yelled at them and gestured right behind her. "The bitch is already starting to get more of her mindless drones together!"

"Do wasps even have drones?" Milly asked, a little confused about the epitomology of this sort of insect strata.

Coco just stared at the group of bickering demons as pieces of mentally broken puzzle started coming together. They were the ones who haven't been keeping her safe in Hell. They seem to want to use her but also want don't really care if she's hurt. If she's being threatened, they only care if the book is involved. They're sitting here, talking about blowing up a building after seeing her literally get choked and hung above at least 20 stories over Hell lava. Blitzo just hit her….

It's no wonder Coco reached her breaking point so soon in Hell.

"SHUT UP!" Coco shouted at all of them. She stood away from all of them right in front of the railing, her hair a mess and her general demeanor of panic obvious. "Just! Stop it! Shut up already! Did you not just see what happened? I almost died- TWICE! And all you talk about is a book! A fucking book! I want to go! I want to go home now! I'm done! I can't do this! I-I-I can't be here! I can't stay here anymore or else I'm gonna DIE!"

The others were quiet for a moment, all four of them giving each other careful glances before deciding positions. Luna already opted to back away and keep an eye on the ground floor while Milly and Moxxy took the roles of good-cop and not-so-nice-but-still-a-good-cop… cop.

"Look," Moxxy started, pretty sure he was supposed to be the bad cop but not really good at being the bad cop. "We all don't want to be here. But this NEEDS to happen or they will keep coming after us. And you! We can't afford a turf war on our turf both physically and financially!"

"We can't help it if this scares you." Milly knew that Moxxy wasn't the bad cop because, come on, it's Moxxy. "But we can't protect you if you're just gonna cry and act like this is the end of the world!"

"I'm not crying and this IS the end of the world!" Coco pointed out correctly. Although, she was mostly definitely on the verge of tears. "This is literal Hell! I was brought here and now I can't leave and you guys are just dragging me around and-"

"Oh will you just drop the self-righteous act already!" Blitzo yelled back while finally turning around to glare at Coco. "GOD! Are all humans like this? Thinking they're all entitled to be the main fucking problem in everyone else's goddamn lives? It's been the most annoying thing about you since you came here- And let me tell ya somethin', sister! There's a lot of annoying things about you!"

Coco felt like she should shut up immediately and felt herself stiffen up like a giant wave was about to crash over her. And the fact that Blitzo cut through the others just to stand over her and glare while he went into his own rant mode didn't help.

"You know how many people get dropped in here on a daily basis?" Blitzo started, the false calm of his voice emphasizing how much she actually didn't know and how it was so completely irritating to have to care about someone who's so stupid. "Enough to justify a literal fucking genocide every year! And I'm not even counting the regular genocide that happens during turf wars! Tons of you come here every day, and you think you're special just cause you're alive? Fuck that! You're just even more miserable and sniffling that all the other fucked up pieces of shit that fall down here for a reason!"

Coco started backing up at this, herself starting to shiver at this kind of scare. Truth.

"Hey now," Moxxy started, stepping beside Blitzo trying to calm him down. Moxxy didn't realize neither he or Milly were the bad cop. "Come on! Ease up on her a litt-"

"Oh what! And start caring about her feelings because being in Hell makes her "uncomfortable?" Blitzo mocked more towards Coco than Moxxy with that. "Welcome to Hell! You will never, ever be comfortable here. Why the fuck do you think more than half of every goddamn loser around here is either hopped on drugs, selling them, or willingly committing mind-fucking auditions to actually join stupid ass groups like that Wasp Bitch's side hustle! How's it our job to make one little human feel "safe and happy" when all she did was hitch a fucking ride to our office!"

"Hey, come on!" Milly said, now trying to defend Coco as she stepped closer to her. "She didn't know what was going to happen! And, it is our fault! Let's just stop yellin' about it and act like the grown ups we-"

"HEY!" Luna shouted, turning to look stress-raged at the others. "If you were FUCKING LISTENING! The fucking second wave is coming whether you want it or not!"

Everyone stopped for a moment until they heard multiple doors burst open and flood with different red-mind-controlled demons pouring in! They carried big work instruments like shovers, crow bars and bats and looked like they had been force fed rage!

"SHIT!" Blitzo said, panicking as he looked around before turning to the others. "Emergency exit plan, NOW!'

"If we blow up the centrifuge then the alarms could mess up with their mind control!" Milly shouted looking all around before she spotted the same maintenance spot a few levels above them. "Then an emergency exit will open and we can get out!"  
"Start by setting off an alarm!" Blitzo shouted, running to the nearest ladder to start making his way over there. "Fire alarm! Spill alarm! Nuclear alarm! Lunch alarm! I don't care! Something to make a lot of noise and distraction!"

"On it!" Moxxy shouted as he pulled up a handgun from his jacket and shot it across the way at the fire alarm on the wall.

Then, a loud whooping noise shook the tower in waves as even more flashing red lights flooded the already scary-imposing room. The noise was almost deafening but it did seem to make the workers stop or slow down somewhat. That gave enough time for everyone to actually start moving.

"We need to get up there and set that thing off as fast as we can!" Milly shouted, running past the others to catch up to Blitzo. "If we do, we need to stay together and get out as soon as possible with a portal!"

"What about the human!" Luna shouted, climbing up the ladder behind Blitzo.

"Just keep up with us!" Blitzo shouted, turning his head to look at Moxxy. "You two keep up and make sure you have that book near by! We'll need it in case we need a second exit strategy!"

"On it!" Moxxy called back, turning to Coco and grabbing her hand so they could catch up. "Come on! If we hurry then we can be out of here and-"

Moxxy tried to pull her but Coco didn't move. She felt planted in her spot from fear and every impulse to run seemed drowned down in a frozen state of self-conscious panic. The loud alarm, the shocking and confusing lights were all making her drift in and out of reality. She knew she had to move, and some part of her desperately wanted to move as well. But she couldn't.

"I-I can't do it," Coco managed to make out. Her face was tilted straight to the floor and she could feel her upper body shaking. It was like her self-preservation instincts were starting to turn off, she just felt terrified and confused and self conscious. Like she was guilty and hated herself at the same time as being terrified and over stimulated by everything around her. "I I ca-can't move.. This can't be happening! I can't do this! I just, can't! It's not gonna work if you leave me alone and-"

"You can't pretend this isn't happening!" Moxxy took Coco by the shoulders, forcing her head to look up at him and shouted at her. He was stressed, enraged almost, and wouldn't take it if she continued to refuse to do the simple steps of saving her life. "You can't just wish it will all go away! This is life! For all of us. We have to deal with it, and so do you! Now stop being a child and run for your life!"

His face-to-face shouting did snap Coco out of her head a little bit. After all, someone making you take responsibility for her own life will make you start acting on your own.

Coco only blinked a few times before biting her bottom lip and nodding, signaling she wasn't fighting back anymore. Moxxy just took her by the hand and began guiding her and making her run to catch up to him.

"We have to keep up with the others," Moxxy started, talking her to keep her together as they started running over towards where the others had gone. "When we get to the main place, you need to be able to open the book so we can summon a portal! Then! We can all go home."

"But what if I can't do it?" Coco asked, looking more and more worried that they were putting responsibilities on her she couldn't handle. "A-And what portal? I-I thought you said I couldn't go through a-"

"To the human world," Blitzo called over as they reached the ladder. He looked over and started barking at them as they started climbing up. "You're bound to the book so you can't leave where it belongs. But you can use a portal here if it stays in Hell! It also helps that you've already been where our office is. So, it won't do anything weird like tear you apart of re-assort your body parts on the other side… I think."

"Great," Moxxy said, helping to pull Coco up as they made it to the top, just in time to give Blitzo a side glare. "Thanks for imparting that last minute, terrifying mental image we all didn't need."

"Hey, as long as it inspires you to do better~" Blitzo cheered.

Both Coco and Moxxy rolled their eyes at that. Coco now looked particularly exhausted and brow beaten after having to swallow more of her pride and feel absolutely miserable because she's reflecting on her own mediocrity now.

'My life is trash and so am I,' was Coco's singular thought as she followed along. 'My life was trash before coming here, it's trash in here, and you know what? Even if I do get out of here, it'll all probably still end up as trash…'

This sort of mentality is definitely not conducive to staying alive.

After running over towards the next ladder, the blaring alarm and lights seemed dulled to her senses as Moxxy dragged Coco behind him. But she also had to keep trying to shut out the sound of more and more demons coming in and also running up ladders and chasing after them. The sense of impending doom was already making everyone sweat as they ran.

"Alright," Blitzo called out as they reached the next ladder. He looked over at the connecting bridge that would take them over to the maintenance section so they could actually escape. "Here's what we do! Milly and Luna, you're on total destruction."

"Roger, sir!" Milly saluted.

"Moxxy and the human, you're both on back up so cover our ass!" Blitzo instructed.

"Then what are you doing?" Moxxy asked, honestly confused.

"Side cover and general negotiator," Blitzo explained while cocking the shot gun. "If anything happens, be sure to-"

And something happened.

They were interrupted by demons now climbing over the sides of the railing and the walls! They were shuffling in and forcing themselves over, mostly carrying large crow bars hap-hazardly, and running towards them in odd manners. It was like they had all this pent up rage but couldn't quiet direct it anywhere, so it left them off balanced and sporadically jutting to the side. But it was still pretty damn threatening.

Before coming up with a plan, Blitzo acted in the split second to protect what he most needed to keep safe.

"You!" Blitzo shouted, grabbing Coco by the shoulders and shoving her up the ladder, forcing her to climb up first and quickly. "Go first! Hurry up and get up there and we'll follow!"

"What!?" Coco shouted, stopping and almost freezing up immediately on the ladder. "What are you-"

"Just go!" Blitzo said, continue to shove her so she would move and directing Milly and Luna to follow next. The demons were closing in quicker and Moxxy was already taking out his own gun and beginning to aim. "We'll catch up! You can't get stuck here and trapped!"

"But what about-"

Coco was cut off when she felt the entire level shake! It felt like the entire tower started to tremble and she almost fell off. But even scarier, she immediately heard the bolts snap on the ladder and felt it start tipping back!

If this ladder actually fell down, she would mostly likely been thrown off over the level and down towards… well. Certain doom. And that is, if the crazy raving demons didn't first catch her and torture her and well, that's an even less pretty mental image to imagine. The same series of images that were all flashing through Coco's eyes as she froze when she first heard the sound of the ladder breaking and felt her center of gravity fly away from her.

'I can't make it,' Cocos' eyes flashed at the gap and she felt her legs and feet swing out lightly from under her. 'I can't make it! Why can't this book just help me make it to where it's safe?! How did this all-'

Her thoughts was stopped when the ladder was suddenly jerked back to the wall and she felt something long and thick like a snake actually push her up and over to the top of the level! Coco caught the side of the railing and felt the level shake under her, demanding that she immediately stand up and run to the nearest ladder so she could run across the bridge to the maintenance center.

'Wait,' Coco stopped and looked down over her shoulder, her heart already starting to pound from the surprise mixed with relief. 'What about everyone else. How are-'

When she looked down, Coco saw Blitzo standing down there and holding up the upped level by stabilizing it with the ladder. He looked tense and deep in thought, using all of his strength to keep the level up for as long as he could while everyone else stood around him and start fighting off the few demons who were already coming closer.

"Blitzo!" Coco shouted, pulling herself up enough so she could lean over and try to reach her arm down to him. "Hurry! You've got to-"

"GO!" Blitzo yelled at her, grunting under the weight as his arms started to shake. "We can't make it from here up there before it falls over! You've gotta get to the maintenance center, it's the only place they can't get to before us! Run over there now!"

"But," Coco started, looking scared over her shoulder and worried as she looked down at him. "What about you and-"

"Just go now!"

The few moments that made Coco feel paralyzed started to creep away as she knew she had to go in order to keep herself safe. Although, she felt an ever present need to stay with them, she ultimately stood up and followed Blitzo's orders to run over to the maintenance center first and keep the book safe.

Once she was gone, Blitzo continued to hold up the level until he was sure she could make it there safely. He looked on and saw his employees already starting to have trouble keeping the other demons back as they looked for other ways to make it back up and follow Coco. It was then Blitzo started to feel his focus tune in.

"Let's compile a short list," Blitzo grunted, his shoulders giving in a little as he tried to keep steady. "A list of everything we don't actually hate about the human…"

"What? Now!" Moxxy shouted, shooting his rifle once and looking over at him before reloading. "Do we really have any time to debate this?"

"We gotta find a way to get out of here!" Milly shouted back, whipping her weapon left and right and creating the most space out of all four of them. "If we don't, she's not just gonna die but we'll all go with her!"

"Reasons to keep her alive," Blitzo said, struggling under the weight and starting to feel himself get crushed. "Remember… why are we doing this?"

"She's.. really naïve but also really smart?" Moxxy offered, reloading his gun and unsure of his own answer. "It makes her interesting to be around!"

"She's nice and cheerful!" Milly said over her shoulder, cutting one demon in half before continuing. "She fixes things!"

"We brought her to Hell so she's our responsibility," Luna reminded them as she kicked over several others down off the railing.

"Only one real reason," Blitzo said, finally starting to catch a breath as he began to shift his weight under the ladder. "She got mad that she wasn't a good person. But… she never called us bad people."

At that, Blitzo wrapped his tail around the outside of the ladder and twisted himself around so the it flew out and pushed off the next oncoming wave of demons. From there, he pulled both Moxxy and Milly over and ran with Luna to the edge of the railing. They jumped over and narrowly caught the edge of the neighboring level and began pulling themselves up! When they finally stopped and caught a breath, Blitzo continued his reasoning.

"She didn't blame us for her problems, she only blamed herself and decided she'd fix them." Blitzo thought back to her own resolve to try and find a way out of Hell, to wonder what was making her be less of a good person, to regret not telling her parents she actually does love and appreciate them. He saw someone who wasn't just willing to try and make mistakes, he saw someone willing to learn from them. "She's got a good heart and soul, and I want to protect the few good things I see."

The others stopped for a minute and looked up at Blitzo, surprised at his sudden sense of humanity and care. And they grinned and nodded along.

'Yeah,' Blitzo thought as they started running towards the next ladder that would help them get up to the maintenance platform. 'If there're only a few good things left in Hell, I'd like to have one of them around…'

Running as fast as she could, Coco ran towards the maintenance platform across the bridge. Feeling a sense of sudden need, she started unlocking the book from around her leg and held it up, opening it in front of her.

'There's gotta be a way to figure out how to open up a portal and get everyone out of here.' Coco scanned page after page until she stood in front of the ladder. 'Damnit! I can't read this thing! How am I supposed to open up a portal if I can't figure out how to read this stupid demon language? If we get trapped in here any longer, we'll-'

Her thoughts were cut off as a few of those worker demons ran over towards her screaming!

"YAAH!" Coco flinched back, grabbing the book tighter against her! "Now would be a really good time for some magic crap to happen!"

Even though it was set to happen when she was getting threatened or in a life-or-death situation, the ring of fire didn't appear until the demons were all two steps away from her. When the blast of fire came out and pushed the demons over the railings again, Coco felt some of herself calm down and gathered her bearings a little bit.

'Okay,' she thought, holding up the book carefully and looking at the cover again. 'I guess this will happen more than once a day if I need it. I guess there's some kind of distance limit or threat limit it has too….'

Not taking the second to keep questioning it, Coco turned around and began climbing up the ladder. It was certain that she had no idea how to actually use the book, or why it did what it did. But it would be nice to know what exactly were the rules to this book and how to use it!

"Because it's really fucking annoying when you can't figure out why crazy shit keeps happening!" She yelled at the book in one hand as she started climbing up the ladder. "I could really use some moral support here, you know!"

As she climbed up and observed the area, the whole thing seemed to feel more and more impossible. But that just spurred her on to angrily continue forward, running down the bridged towards what she assumed was where she needed to end up.

'If I can just get to the maintenance platform then maybe I can figure out how to at least close all these doors and stop all of the other demons from coming through.' Coco decided her plan should be helping IMP fight off less stuff so they could focus on getting our of here. 'I guess this little compass on my wrist could help somehow. But how am I gonna know if I don't need some kind of key pass or code into it? I just hope I'm lucky enough to-'

As she turned around, again another wave of crazed-worked demons seemed to be heading her way. Not only was she sure that the ring of fire wouldn't be able to come soon enough, she was pretty sure that the workers weren't here to be friendly.

"God could this day get any more stressful!" Coco shouted, looking down at the book and imploring it to do something. "I could really use a little help here now!"

What caught her eye next was the compass on her wrist. The needle was now wiggling to a stop and pointing directly across at one of the demons. When Coco looked closely, she could see the the demon, holding a socket wrench, had a blue laniard around his neck!

'That's it!' Coco's mind alerted her to her horrible/good luck. 'If I get that key card then I can get into the maintenance system!… But.'

Yeah. There is a pretty big but here when all that's standing in your way are a couple of brainwashed induced demons big enough to crush you with one hand.

"Mother fucker," Coco directed this comment right down to the book. "You don't make anything easy, I hope you know that."

She figured she had two options:

Go back down the ladder and find a way to lose them both while snatching the laniard.

Some how run at one demon, avoid getting beaten to death and do some kind of improvised parkour-shit to steal the laniard and run to safety.

Oh, she knows she has no athletic skills what-so-ever.

'Running for my life it is!"

Just as Coco tried to turn around to run back down where she just came from, she saw Miss honey slowly being brought up above on the shoulders of one of her bigger minion-demons.

"Oh fuck…" Coco said to herself, her heart dropping as she took as step back and looked up. "I'm doomed…"

"Very observant~" Miss Honey cheered.

The only, only saving grace that this implied was that the other demons stopped running and dropped their weapons. They must have had some kind of unconscious control to calm down and be docile while Miss Honey was around.

The demon stopped about a foot away from Coco and let Miss Honey push off of his shoulders and stand in front of Coco. Her face looked sharper than before, and her black eyes somehow had red darts at the corners like she had just snorted drugs.

"You know how tiresome it is to stop my workers just to take care of a little pest problem?" Miss Honey stepped forward, her face looking more threatening then before. Her heels were tight and sharp and it made her sound like she was stomping on glass. "All for a bunch of imps! How, completely, totally, amazingly annoying it all is!"

"Well," Coco felt like she had to answer with something. "It looks like they weren't doing a very good job, seeing that everyone's still alive and your workers keep getting into work-related accidents…"

And she just had to be a smart ass again.

'I'm dead,' Coco's final thoughts were already playing soft piano music.

Miss Honey made a noise like growl from the back of her throat, but it came off like some kind of buzzing sound. She then gritted her teeth and pinched the skin in-between her eyes. It was so personally irritating to her at this point.

"You're a strange one," she said, opening her eyes and looking back at Coco. On second study, Coco was even less impressive then at first with such soft and child-like features. There didn't seem to be an inch of backbone in her nor ability to be useful! "I don't get it, what's the use of you? You can't use the book, you can't defend yourself. Fuck! You're probably no good in bed. So why the fuck would a bunch of IMPs bother trying to risk their lives for yours!"

"Why does everyone think I'm having sex with someone?" Coco asked no one in particular as she momentarily flushed and looked away in embarrassment. "I don't even have enough money for the pill anymore…"

"Doesn't matter," she spat and grinned at Coco. "As long as I've got no one to bother me here! Looks like those imps will be taking their sweet time to get her from three floors down! So let's finish what we started!"

She raised up a long, taloned finger in the air that looked like a sharp thorn sticking out at least five inches! She swiped down once but Coco quickly saw it happen and jumped out of the way!

"What the fuck!" Coco shouted. "Lady get a manicure!"

"Don't think it's going to be easy to get away this time!" Miss Honey yelled, snapping her fingers on her normal-looking hand. "I'm not letting anyone get in the way of what I want again!"

The demons reacted by turning immediately for Coco and lunging at her! She ducked under a few arms and ended up rolling through a pair of legs before getting up and trying to run away. Only before she could slip out entirely, one of them hit her and made her fall to the ground!

"Ah!" Coco clutched her left leg. She remembered she still had that ankle injury from yesterday, and now she felt like sliding along the cement floor must have messed up something else in her leg. "Jesus H. Fucking Christ!"

"Watch your language!" Miss Honey yelled, stomping over with the same heel clicking and a sadistic smile creeping up to her face. "Now now now, girly~ So you broke a leg? That's easy to fix. Just don't scratch my book dear!"

Coco sat up and looked around, realizing she had no where to go. Even if she stood up now and started running, Miss Honey was too close and those demons would just jump in again! There's no way her leg could carry her anymore and the pain in her foot started to burn again.

Sometimes, when you're so freaking scared and panicked and don't know what to do, all your mind tells you to do is calm yourself down. And the only way Coco usually calms her nerves is by singing to herself. She had a plethora of songs, especially church hymns that she sang when she was a choir girl. That whole episode of her life was… weird.

But now, all she could think about was playing a song and singing just to catch her breath. Just to calm her heart. Just to, to, to, for a minute. Pretend she actually isn't about to lose all hope in herself.

So she sang.

_"Go tell it on the mountain_

_And over the hills everywhere_

_Go tell it on the mountain_

_That Jesus Christ is born~"_

"Again with the foul language," Miss Honey growled again, standing in front of her and raising her nail above her head like a saber. "I'll be sure to sew that mouth shut so I never have to hear a godawful sound like that agai-"

Then she felt everything happen slowly.

The curse mark along Coco's arm burned hot red and when she looked down at the compass, she saw the needle pointing straight at Miss Honey while something spinned underneath it.

Suddenly, that ring of fire that only made a protective circle, spun out from Coco and became hotter and hotter. Coco felt calm and cool in the circle, but she saw that the outside had turned bright blue and began shifting itself. It wasn't the flat 2-D circle on the ground, it began swooping up all over like a 3-D circle! Then! As it grew bigger and bigger, it exploded forward around all sides, cutting into the very concrete and shoving all of the demons off in a blast of bright fire!

Coco was left sitting there, stunned a moment. Silent and feeling her entire body was calm and at peace. When she looked over at her curse mark, she saw the red lines were fading back into black and the heat was dissipating. When she held up the compass to her face, she saw it slowly spin back in place and point behind her towards the ladder. From there, she could climb up two platforms and make her way out of here to the maintenance platform.

"You're a… You're a really surprising helper, you know?" She asked her… moral compass. "Yeah. That's your name now. Moral Compass. Live with the irony."

Hearing no subconscious or demonic opposition, she supposed her joke-name for the demon possession tattoo was cute enough.

It took Coco a moment to actually stand up. The pain in her foot and leg seemed bearable, but now she felt more exhausted for some reason and had to carry the book as well as drag herself up more ladders until she could find some place to rest. When she managed to stand up and start walking, she went over to the railing to keep her balance together.

She looked over the railing to see if she could find anyone from IMP getting closer to her. She saw nothing but demons walking around, they seemed more dazing now for some reason and less murderous. But she also didn't see Miss Honey around anywhere.

"She's not dead is she?" Coco asked herself, the looked down at her moral compass. Seeing a small needle jump off and point towards N, Coco knew she couldn't feel relieved just yet. "I should get out of her fast then…"

She looked over and saw, hanging on one of the rail poles, was that same blue laniard. Coco grinned as she took it and hung it around her neck. The only seemingly positive thing that came out of this mess.

Coco dragged her leg carefully as she walked up the ladder and over closer towards the maintenance platform. The walking and the random attacks playing through her mind were making her mentally more and more confused, which irritated her. How did all of this start, and why was it taking so long for it to end?

She ended up at the ladder right before the maintenance platform and just dropped to her knees. It wasn't in her plans, but suddenly her knees just gave out on her and she fell to the floor breathing heavily and couldn't move. She felt herself sweating and hot all over, like all of the heat was starting to eat her from the inside and swallowing her up.

"Can't… breathe…" Coco clutched her chest and started pulling and her shirt, tearing the buttons undone and trying to find some way to breathe better.

The wave of heat and pain started to slow down, just as Coco heard more foot steps running towards her. She panicked, the thought of more demons coming at her now that she knew she couldn't run away or do anything to fight back!

But when she looked up, she was more surprised to see Blitzo running towards her with Moxxy, Milly and Luna on his heels! Milly and Luna looked worse for the wear, their clothes all torn up and scratched with blood as only Moxxy and Blitzo had a few tears on their clothes. They all looked mostly out of breath and stopped once they saw Coco sitting there.

"Good, you're not dead," Blitzo said, huffing and puffing as all of this cardio was taking a toll on him. He saw actually incredibly relieved to see Coco sitting there, but he didn't have enough energy to pull her into a bear hug yet. Now, he needed everyone to get up and blow this place up before the WASP was back. "Get up, we've still got a-"

"What?" Coco just stared up at him, her heart dropping and her eyes becoming wider like she was about to cry but she knew she had no intention of crying. "You want me to to to do what? What exactly?"

"To get your ass up and start moving!" Blitzo bitched at her. Honestly, he didn't mean to be so rude but he's tired, has a hand cramp and wanted to blow this whole place up so he can go home and have a bath. "What do you think? Now stand up and-"

"I can't move!" Coco gestured to herself, her anger rising as her self shame and pity began to come up again. "I'm sorry if getting hit by demons, running for my life and dealing with this book's shit isn't enough for you! But I can't move my fucking legs anymore! I can barely breathe! And you want me to do what? What? Stand and watch you mess this all up because you don't know what you're doing?"

"Hey!" Milly yelled, popping her head over and glaring at Coco. "We're all tired! And I'll have you know we've got a better plan then-"

Coco threw the laniard at Milly and just gave her an exhausted expression.

"It's for the maintenance log in," Coco said, now entirely exhausted. "You're welcome. And thanks for throwing me out here, where I don't know where I'm going, with no protection. And thinking "hey, this is great idea!" While I ran for my life! I'm sorry I'm tired!"

"Look, it doesn't matter." Moxxy chipped in, his brow bent and he tried putting back all of his own frustration and trying to be the voice of reason. "I know you're tired. We're all tired! But you can't just stay down here on you're own because you can't pick yourself up and-"

"I wasn't born yesterday!" Coco yelled at them all.

Everyone stopped for a moment and just looked at her. This tiny human, this tiny little thing with so much exhaustion and so much heart, almost crying because she's so ashamed that she can't pick herself back up again.

"I'm not completely stupid of everything!" Coco yelled out, almost crying as she sat there. Her leg hurt, her chest hurt, her everything hurt. And now her pride was being destroyed. "I get it! There's shit that goes over my head and that I don't understand and that I'm making it harder for me by doing all of this! I'm completely stupid and fucking things up by being this way! But! I'm scared! And I'm tired… And I don't know what to do because I wasn't made to be doing this… I just want to be better so I can go home and know what's wrong with me so I can fix it…"

Luna, Milly and Moxxy looked at one another. They looked shocked and couldn't think of what to do or say next. Should they offer to help? Should they keep brow beating her into complying. It seemed to work before. But she just sounded so completely tired that they didn't know what could help.

But Blitzo was the first to act. Her walked over and stooped down, his eyes meeting Coco's. At first she was scared, Blitzo had never been so close to her before and never gotten so quiet so quickly. But all of a sudden, she felt him pick her up carefully and hold her up in her hands. He managed to fit her in-between his arms while his tail held on to the shot gun.

"I know this isn't fair," Blitzo said, his yellow-black eyes looking into her green ones. He looked honest and sorrowful, he looked like he was trying to be a human. "And I'm not gonna apologize for it. But… I'm not leaving you behind. So you're gonna have to just trust me while we work and we're just gonna have to trust you to keep yourself safe when we can't."

Coco sat there awe-struck. Here Blitzo was, holding her up so easily with his wiry frame and telling her to trust him. The same man who threatened and offered to kill her last night, was asking her to work with him a little longer just so everyone could get alive.

She just bit her bottom lip a little and averted her eyes in shame, nodding her head a little to show she wouldn't fight it.

"Thank you…" She said quietly to Blitzo under her breath.

"You gotta keep up with us because we're not gonna slow down for you." Blitzo said solely before turning to the others, turning back into his boss mode. "Let's get up there and just fucking blow this place up! We'll summon a portal just as we do it so we can skip the fireworks."

"On it!" Milly and Moxxy said together as they started up the ladder.

"I'll take the book," Luna offered, holding out her hand.

"I think I'll keep it," Coco said, stroking the cover and holding it closer. "It's sort of saved me this whole time…"

"Eh, you do you," Luna shrugged and climbed up the ladder. "Also, you do something back there? Those fuck heads got a lot more scared and weaker a few floors back."

"Maybe…" Coco answered, unsure herself.

Blitzo carried her up the ladder and let her sit on the side near it. Then he ran over to the others and watched as Milly and Moxxy messed with this or that to try and shut the place down.

"How far have you gotten?" Blitzo asked, looking very confused at all of the charts and figures.

"We haven't got single clue as to what to do," Moxxy admitted, looking at Blitzo with an uncomfortable face. "Even if we knew what we were doing, sir, how are we supposed to blow this place up? Nobody in their right minds would design a factory like that!"

"Hey! You're supposed to be the smart ones, not the sarcastic ones!" Blitzo bitched before pushing him aside and looking. "Goddamn it! It's all in math! Figure out something to blow this place up or-"

"Why don't you just turn of the cooling systems to the central centrifuge?" Coco offered, sitting over and eavesdropping. "If the heating core gets over heated, then it'll cause a melt down in the central energy production and cause the whole system to go into fail safe or trigger an earthquake under the building from energy and pressure build up."

All three of them looked over, both surprised and horror stricken at Coco's sudden genius. She sat there, looking uncomfortable and averted their gaze for a minute.

"Um, I study energy planning and engineering in school," Coco said, flushing from the heat. "I-I figured this place must be a lot like a nuclear energy plant, since Hell is really hot and all. So, there probably has to be a main cooling mechanism…"

"… Oh yeah!" Milly said, pointing at a set of controls near her. "Here it is!"

"… Goddamn," Blitzo said, looking over at Coco even more surprised. "I guess you're useful here after all."

Coco blushed and looked away. For once, her random nerd knowledge came in handy but she was still being made fun of for it.

'Smart people are never respected,' was Coco's singular thought of the moment.

"The cooling systems will take about five minutes to shut off completely," Moxxy said, looking over at Blitzo. "Then it'll take about ten more minutes for the whole system to over heat and start building up to something here."

"So we've got fifteen minutes set up a portal here." Blitzo said, pondering on how close of a call that is.

"That's not a lot of time," Milly chipped in, looking concerned.

"There isn't another way out?" Luna said, annoyed and looking around.

"Not that we have enough time to get out through," Blitzo said and turning to Coco. "Okay, hand over the book and let me use it. We'll start setting up the portal now so we can get out of here!"  
"Okay…" Coco said, starting to stand up uncomfortably and hand over the book to Blitzo. "Do we need to do anything? Like, draw a circle of- WOAH!"

Coco felt herself get yanked up in the air by force and the book tumble out of her hands awkwardly. The team scrambled for the book before it fell over the rails and it was nearly lost before Moxxy narrowly saved it by catching it and hanging over the railings. After sighing in relief, all of IMP looked up to see Coco hanging up and dangling twenty feet above from them by Miss Honey!

'THE BITCH HAS WINGS!" Coco mentally freaked out as she dangled above the now ever present smell of sulfur and suddenly even more unbearable heat. 'What the hell is floating up here!?'

"Hot enough for you?" Miss Honey's voice had gone up so high she sounded auto tuned. If Coco could turn her neck around, she'd see Miss Honey had lost almost all of her human features and looked like a blaring Wasp-Demon. "Heat rises, along with poison and sulfur. You shits think you can just sabotage my work and get out of here without any trouble?"

"Hey! You're the one building and poaching on somebody else's turf!" Blitzo yelled back at her pushing Moxxy aside and yelling up at her. "You think you can keep hiding this from Stollas and the other dirt bag before anyone notices? Like Hell you'll keep yourself this well off alone!"

"Oh, but I'm not alone now!" Miss Honey screeched, looking down at the others. "You have a precious item of Stollas', and he'll want it back so badly that he'll give anything for it! And I'm sure he won't mind losing his little IMP toys while we're at it~"

"You're so crazy," Coco sputtered, yanking her elbow back so her curse mark could breath more and so she could yell without choking. "You're gonna blow us all up with you in here!? The book'll be burnt and you'll be dead before it all happens you crazy bitch!"

"Oh~ I can take some heat. But you?" Miss Honey sneered. "Such a weakling! Almost like a human! I can't wait until you're all dead so I can tear a part whatever's left of you! I'll split you apart, I'll eat your insides, and then I'll tear off your heads and show them to Stollas myself after you're all-"

Again, the same fire built around her curse mark and sent a smaller version of the blue 3-D sphere of fire (Hell Burn? Should Coco call it that?) out and forced Miss Honey away! Coco remembered hearing the faint sound of Miss Honey screaming and the sound of flesh being sizzled, but she was more preoccupied with falling to her death to pay that much attention.

"**Reach out and catch the first thing you touch.**"

That's all Coco heard before she felt her hands grab hold of the railing of another nearby platform. Her body dangled over the railing for a time longer as her ears stopped ringing and could process sound. And when she could hear again, all she heard was a siren blowing throughout the building all around her.

"It's reacting now!" Moxxy yelled out, opening the book while looking up at Blitzo. "We've got to summon to portal now or we'll all be dead in a matter of minutes!"

"You three take care of the exit!" Blitzo yelled back as he started running forward towards Coco. "I'll get Coco back!"  
"But sir-" Moxxy started.

"Just do it!"

Coco dangled precariously, her arms beginning to shake as she tried to keep steady. She didn't know what to do. She knew she couldn't hang on any longer but she wasn't sure if she had enough strength left in her to pull herself up anymore. She felt so physically tired but she was mentally awake and ever more aware of how close to the brink of death she is.

"Coco!"

Coco's eyes went wide and she looked down over her shoulder (wow, scary) and saw Blitzo standing five stories down across from where she was. He was looking up at her panicked but threw away his jacket and opened his arms up.

"Listen to me!" He shouted over the sounds of alarms, shaking platforms and general crushing heat. "The building's falling apart! We can't get up to you! You need to let go, jump down and let me catch you!"

"WHAT!?" Coco shouted, trying to hold in how impossible that was and how stupid his idea sounded. "Are you crazy!? I'll die!"

"You're gonna die up there if you don't do it!" Blitzo called back, walking closer to the railing before standing on top of it to get a better vantage point. "Just do it! All you have to do is give one good kick with your good leg and lean back into it! We can get out of here just in time but only if you do it now!"

Coco felt more frozen in place. Her heart started to beat against her chest as she looked around and felt herself become hotter and tighter. Like the space was choking her. Why was he asking her to do this? Why was this the only thing she could do?

"I can't do it!" Coco already felt like she had given up. "I'm scared!"

"Trust me!" Blitzo shouted back, untying his tie and shouting as much encouragement as he could. "You're gonna be FINE! I can catch you!"

"I don't want to move!" Coco said, burying her head in her knuckles and refusing to look back down. "I can't!"

"Listen to me." Blitzo said one more time. He opened up his arms and stared up at her, his voice as calm as he could be and showing his patience. "It's gonna be okay! I'm right here, and as long as I'm here I will never let anything happen to you!"

Coco stopped and lifted her head from her knuckles. When she looked back down, she saw Blitzo just standing there, waiting for her instead of getting the summoning portal ready with the others. And as she saw him stand there, she forgot why she was more scared of him than of here.

She just remembered how lonely she's been and how much she wanted a friend since before coming here…

Taking the leap of faith, Coco did as she was instructed and let go while kicking her leg against the concrete and falling back. While the hot air created a feeling like needles piercing all through her skin, she did land into Blitzos' arms before crashing anywhere else.

The force kicked them both back onto the hard concrete with Blitzo taking most of the fall. But he had her carefully in her arms and near the safest thing she had been all day.

When Blitzo and her sat up, they saw that Moxxy, Milly and Luna had gotten a small portal open on the ground and ready to jump through!

"Hurry!" Moxxy shouted as Luna then Milly jumped through one at a time. "We can't keep open for much longer! We need to go now before this whole place blows up!"

Blitzo didn't even answer as he picked up Coco again and went sprinting. Moxxy handed Blitzo the book before jumping in himself and Blitzo shoved it in Coco's hands before looking at her.

"I need you to trust me when I ask you this," Blitzo said as he stared at her, boring into her green eyes with as serious a look as he could muster. "Do you think all place in Hell are the same?"

"NO!" Coco said, looking around. Confused as to why he was wasting time and why he was asking such a dumb question. "Of course not! Everyone's different here and has their own fucked up agenda!"

"Then I need to know!" Blitzo said. "Do you want to come back with us!"

"What!?"

"Do you trust me?" Blitzo looked concerned, even tired but mostly like he genuinely needed to know this. "The book won't trust us if you don't and I can't have you thinking I want you dead anymore! Please! Promise me you'll trust me from now on…"

Coco looked at him confused and a second passed before she knew exactly how she felt.

"I'll trust you as long as I'm here in Hell," Coco said, feeling like tears were welling up and about to fall over. "Just… Just please be a friend. Please don't try to use me unless you're gonna be my friend too…"

"Honey, I'd never use you like this if I wasn't absolutely sure I wanted to be your friend." Blitzo promised before stepping into the portal. "Hell, you're probably going to be the best thing I've ever stumbled on in any world…"

The next moment, both Coco and Blitzo shot through the portal and ended up crashing into the wall of the office. That was definitely not good for their backs… The portal burned hot and heavy for a second before burning itself out and disappearing. Leaving everyone either standing or laying down in the middle of the wrecked office with an even larger burn mark in the ground.

"GREAT…." Blitzo complained, sitting up and glaring at Moxxy. Now that he wasn't under a line threatening situation, he felt he could complain a bit more about his crappy life. "You couldn't of made an even more crappy portal, Mox? Just look at what you did to my office!"

"Me!?" Moxxy pressed both hands to his chest and looked appalled at the accusation. "What did I do!? That portal is the best all of us could make without your magic involved! Not to mention there were no ritual stuffs and we were in a burning building to-"

"Hey," Coco interrupted, still laying flat on her back on the floor and looking up at the others much more calmly now. "How do we know is that place is really gonna blow up or not?"

Before anyone could say anything, the red sky from the window seemed to light up several shades brighter and there was a low sound like the bass drop in house music. Everyone stopped and picked themselves up, walking over to the window and seeing what looked like a mega fire off in the distance away from them.

"… So, does this mean the work day's over?" Milly asked confused.

"I guess blowing up a giant construction hive and keep a turf war from happening is considered work?" Blitzo answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"We didn't get paid for it," Luna reminded him before turning and walking away. "I'm gonna take a shower in the back. Someone order take out."

"Chinese?" Moxxy asked, looking at Milly and Coco.

**-Later-**

Blitzo looked around for Coco in the office. The Chinese food was delivered and everyone was catching idly without her and this was worrying him. Especially since he saw the book sitting carefully on his desk. He looked around the office until he found there was an open window opened to the alleyway. He crawled through and saw Coco sitting there on the fire escape, legs through the railings and her head rested on her arms as she stared out through the crowded buildings at the red sky with the pentagram floating above.

"Whatcha doin?" Blitzo asked, a very giddy smile on his face as he approached her. A lot like a cat in fact.

"Listening to a couple of guys rioting down the street," Coco said, staring out at nowhere facing the sky. She had changed into yet another pair of Blitzo and Moxxy's clothes without the devil horns on and was taking in the new sense of calm that came in Hell when you're not being directly threatened or running for your life. "It's actually strangely calming."

"Yeah," Blitzo said, feeling very chummy. "I like those guys."

They sat there like that for a moment, neither of them speaking and just taking in the pre-dawn Hell before Blitzo started again.

"How's you're leg?" Blitzo asked, looking concerned down at Coco's left leg and foot.

"It's okay," Coco said, holding out her foot a little like she was presenting it. "I found some tape so I wrapped the parts that hurt. I'll just take it easy tomorrow and try not to walk on it a lot."

"Right," Blitzo said. He looked away and sat quietly for another moment before squirming around a little and looking back at her. "You did good today, you know? Not a lot of humans would have made even half as far as you did today on your own. You really went over my expectations… You seriously killed it out there."

"… Did I really do good though?" Coco turned and looked at Blitzo with a tired expression that showed she had been thinking too much these last few hours. "All I did was run for my life but- Well. It felt almost exactly like what I do back home. Like, not as fast or direct, but the same idea. I've just been running away from shit I made myself go through. And, I don't know if I'm running for my life or away from life anymore. Like, there's no end game here or there for me anymore! I'm just running away from whatever will kill me and waiting to run from the next thing that will!"

Coco took in a deep breath and let out a long and heavy groan before leaning back on her hands. She didn't know why she was doing this, but she knew she had to.

"It's like I'm just stuck in the same place as the same person and each time I'm not good enough to actually get where I want to be." Coco complained, before she knew she had to complain about the actual problem she has. "It's just, I don't know where I really want to be. I don't know what I want! I just, keep "going with the flow" and thinking that'll get me somewhere. But it's not. And it hasn't. And I don't what I'm doing anymore or how to get better because I… I don't really know what I'm good at. I don't know what I want because… I'm afraid if I figured it out, I won't know who I am anymore…"

Blitzo sat there for a moment, blinked for a second before holding out his hand and patting her on her head. Coco felt the palm of Blitzo's hand shake her head a moment before he just left it there and grinned at her.

"Hey," Blitzo said cheerfully, taking in her loaded personal-moral crisis and rolling with it. He knew she was smart, he knew she was good and he knew she was handy to have around. So Blitzo thought he could be completely honest and truthful with her. "If you're down here with the rest of these, uh, how should I put it? Hmmm, fucked up individuals, let's call them. Well, then you're doing a lot better by comparison!"

"PFFFT," Coco cracked a sarcastic grin and rolled her eyes at that. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No," Blitzo said, shaking his head and grinning. "It's supposed to make you laugh. Now come on, kid! No use in cryin' or being embarrassed down here. If you fail once, well nobody's gonna judge you. Not unless you don't learn from it and try better next time."

Coco just sighed and shook her head, starting to stand up and follow Blitzo inside. Like he said, if she's going to be stuck here then she has to accept that she's here. And if she's here, she had to accept that there are things so far out of her control that'll she'll just have to become good at reacting at the stuff.

Plus, like she thought before, if she's stuck here trying to figure out how to get home on her own. Maybe now's a good time to figure out how to be a better person. If she really wanted to know what she wanted to do with her life, being a good person seemed like to be the best place to end up at!

Then, as they stepped back into the office where everyone was fighting over egg rolls; Coco stopped and realized something very important.

"Uh," she started, realizing her entire plan had one false spot. "So… where do I sleep again?"


	7. A very improvised living situation

"Alright then," Blitzo said, sitting at his desk and shuffling some papers while wearing a pair of half-rimmed glasses in an effort to look smarter. "I see you're applying for our position of Background Checking Agent, is that correct Mrs. Coco?"  
"Um," Coco sat there across from the desk looking rather confused. "I thought we were gonna talk about me sleeping on the couch tonight…?"

After an hour of Chinese takeout and cleaning up, Blitzo started setting up this improvised interview that Coco was incredibly unprepared for. Other than having no idea what was going on, she was also certain she didn't have anything to make herself look impressive for this interview. It was only confirmed when she saw in her bag all she had from the Living World were her school notebooks, a sketch book, some piano music, her mostly empty wallet and a broken I-Phone.

'I have literally nothing to offer at this table,' Coco deadpanned as she watched Blitzo shuffle more imaginary papers as if they were hers. 'You're hit-men, I'm a feminist. This isn't going to end well for me…'

"First question, Mrs. Coco," Blitzo said before looking over his glasses and giving her a grin. "Can I call you Coco?"

"You've been doing that since the beginning." Coco reminded him. "And I'm not married."

"So you're single, eh? Well that's understandable," Blitzo put away the random papers and took off his glasses, settling with holding his hands on his desk and smiling at her. "Working girl and all, the modern office life! Must keep you pretty busy."

"I'm in Grad School…." Coco said, looking away for a moment. What is it about marriage and relationships that make her feel so awkward?

"Tell me!" Blitzo changed the subject again. "Do you think you could pass a background check?"

"… I have no records here in Hell." Coco again deadpanned.

"Hmm, I see," Blitzo took out a random clip board and looked over it. It looked like something had been written on it and like he was purposely playing office with her. "No credit history here I suppose either. Do you think you could pass a drug test?"

"…." Coco stared at Blitzo wide eyed in semi-insult before turning to Milly and Moxxy who were both standing across the room against the wall next to the water cooler. "Is this really necessary?"

"Just play along," Moxxy said, looking equally as baffled but used to this crap. "It'll be more painless if you're honest."

"Kay?" Coco turned back to Blitzo and looked at him more tired. "Sure, I'll take a drug test."

"Hmmm," Blitzo said, making a mock thinking face and writing something down. "I see…"

'What!? How was that a bad answer!?' Coco mentally yelled and looked at Blitzo confused. 'Most places don't want their employees to have drugs or personal lives!'

Blitzo seemed to be making this all up as he goes.

"Now I see I don't have your resume on file," Blitzo said, looking at his clipboard again before smiling up at Coco. "Do you have any relevant work experience here Hell?"

"No." Coco said truthfully. Then she thought about it and saw if she could take her previous experiences as relevant. "Does getting kidnapped twice count?"

"Did you kill anyone there?" Blitzo asked.

"No."  
"Hmm, that would have been beneficial to your skill set." Blitzo said, notting something down before looking back up at her. "Do you have any notable experience with~~ murder?"

"No." Coco said nervously.

"How about torture?"

"No?" She said confused.

"Blackmail?"

"No." She said tiredly.

"Extortion?"

"No!" She said annoyed.

"How about kidnapping?"  
"I've been kidnapped before…" She said exhausted.

"Hmmm," Blitzo looked on and then switched his answers. "I see your education history hasn't been listed here. Tell me! Did you graduate from an accredited school in the last 5-6 years?"

"Accredited in the Living World or here in Hell?" Coco asked for clarification.

"In Hell~" Blitzo said cheerfully.

"No." Coco blankly stated.

"Hmm, I see. What about a high school diploma?" Blitzo asked.

"Again," Coco sought more clarification just to see if he was listening at this point. "On Earth or here in Hell….?"

"Hell."

"NO!" Coco said angrily. "I just told you! I just moved here yesterday!"

"I see," Blitzo smiled and nodded, writing something down. "And do you have a current address or P.O. Box?"

"No…" Coco said exhausted. "You're the one who told me to sleep in the back closet…"

"I see," Blitzo wrote that down and looked up at her concerned. "Now, no judgement on our part. But, uh, please be honest. Are you homeless?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm not homeless- I'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED!" Coco clarified and angrily face palmed herself. "You're the one who brought me here…"

"I see," Blitzo continued to write something down like he actually knew what he was doing.

Coco sat there and stared for a minute before looking up at the ceiling fan and getting more and more stressed.

'Oh God,' the possibility that he wasn't just kidding was dawning on her. 'I'm sleeping out on the streets tonight, aren't I?"

Then Blitzo put down his clipboard and looked up at Coco with a cool, calm and collected look. And that look screamed "BAD" to Coco.

"Well! I see you have no work experience, education background, transferable skills or any useful experience related in our industry." Blitzo stated carefully before opening his eyes, grinning at her and holding out his hand to shake. "You're hired! Welcome to the team!"

Worst job interview ever.

"Uhhhhhhh," Cocos' brain shut down for a second and then processed long enough to think of the most appropriate response yet. "Thank you…?"

"What!" Moxxy walked up beside Coco, who was sitting there and staring at Blitzo's hand in confusion. He looked slightly pissed off but more baffled at Blitzo's false logic then anything else. "Sir! You can't be serious? Having a human work in our office is completely insane!"

"Now, Moxxy!" Blitzo waved off the comment and stood up from his desk, picking up the clipboard and showing it to Moxxy. "Don't be so negative! She passed the interview with flying colors and a perfect record!"

"…" Moxxy took the clipboard from him and stared at it before turning it around with a dead expression. "This is just a bunch of drawings with 'Pleeze Don't Run, KoKo' scribbled at the bottom."

"How'd he misspell her name when it's written at the top?" Milly wondered out loud.

"I'm actually quiet proud of my artistic depictions," Blitzo said, taking the clipboard back and throwing it over his shoulder. "Besides! We all knew this was a sham! Who else would be better at conducting a background check on humans then an actual human!"

"Sir! We already have a client relations person!" Moxxy gestured over to Luna, sitting over at her own desk. "Our receptionist is supposed to do a background check! Not a hired little kid who doesn't know how to-"

Moxxy was stopped by a pot of coffee being thrown at head from across the room. When everyone looked up, they saw Luna had thrown it at Moxxy and was standing up with mad red eyes.

"Hey! Don't fuck with me about a new employee, alright!" Luna shouted before holding up a landline phone over her head. She was willing to protect her ability to not have to work hard at any cost. "My job is fucking stressful enough as it is! Hire the goddamn human!"

"You don't even answer the phones!" Moxxy shouted back, ducking as Luna chucked the landline at him. "And you keep breaking everything!"

Other than seriously wondering how this office actually made any money, Coco had to think about what this would actually do for her. On the one hand, they all commit massive amounts of murder, scream at each other all the time, cause a huge mess everywhere they go and didn't look like they actually knew what they were doing. But, then again, she was stuck in Hell and had nothing better to do. Plus, this could probably lead to helping her out later by learning more about human-demon relations!

But! There was another important question that needed to be asked.

"… Do I get paid for this?" Coco asked Blitzo.

"Of course!" He assured her, smiling with a hand up. "We'll give you our standard rate along with commission!"

"… Cool," Coco turned and looked at Milly. So far she'd observed several death threats, destruction of office property and some black mail going on in this workplace. "Is this what the office is like everyday?"

"Pretty much!" She said cheerfully before pulling her up out of her chair and giving her a hug. "You're gonna love it! Welcome to the family!"

"… Didn't think my first career out of college was gonna be at a hit agency." Coco said to herself, starting to slowly wonder if this was gonna affect her moral standing in the world. How was she gonna put this on her resume? "Yay…"

It was agreed upon then that Coco would get to sleep on the couch in the lobby until they could think of a better plan.

"As a part of your employee benefits," Blitzo started, standing up straight and smiling in the middle of the lobby with everyone else from IMP. He had a blanket and pillow under his arm along with what looked like a really creepy teddy bear. "You have the privilege of using our offices' temporary lodging for all of your household needs until better shelter can be provided!"

"He means you can sleep on the couch as long as you don't wreck the place," Moxxy clarified.

Looking around the office, Coco realized how grimy this place actually was. It didn't just remind her of an old pulp-fiction novel, it actually looked like one with all of the furniture looking old and dusty, the floors burnt, dried blood stains on the walls and the blinds to the window so torn apart that you could see the dim-burnt red sky coming through.

The office itself just looked like its own kind of horror story.

"… Yeah. Employee benefits…" Coco mouthed before looking back up at them. "Are you sure it's safe in here? Do you have an alarm or anything?"

"Of course we do!" Blitzo reassured her before taking out a shot gun from behind him. "If anything happens, just shoot them with this and then we'll-"

"NO!" Coco shouted, looking up at Blitzo with mad eyes. "I'm not keeping a shot gun next to me while I sleep on the couch! That is not safe!"

"Well not if you don't have the safety on!" Blitzo complained before looking confused at the shot gun. "Where is the safety on this thing?"

"Sir," Moxxy took the gun away from him and flipping the safety on himself. "We can't let her stay here."  
"Yes!" Coco said, relieved. "Thank you!"

"She'll just mess up the whole place." He continued.

"Hey!" Coco shouted.

"Why doesn't she just come and stay with us?" Milly offered, smiling at both Moxxy and Coco. "We've got room on our couch for her!"

"What?!" Moxxy looked at Milly almost outraged as if she just said she set their apartment on fire. "Milly! Are you even listening to yourself now?"

"Yeah!" Milly cheered, grabbing Coco by her shoulders and pressing her face against Coco's smiling as if they were sisters. "C'mon, Mox! It'll be fun! Just like a sleepover! We'll make popcorn, we'll match movies, will stay up real late-"

"We have work tomorrow," Moxxy reminded her.

"We'll go to bed at 10," Milly readjusted their night schedule and then smiled. "It'll be great! What do you say, Coco?"

"Well," Coco stood there and thought it over. Ignoring Moxxys' obvious ambivalence and thinking more about her possible comfort. "It'll definitely be nicer than staying in the office all night again. And you guys seem fun."

"Yeah!"

Milly again hugged Coco and Coco looked down at her moral compass. The needle just pointed up at Y and she honestly figured it just didn't matter where ever she stayed.

'As long as it's not on the street or near explosives,' Coco thought, looking out the window timidly. 'I've also got a feeling being around these two would be safer than being alone in here…'

But Moxxy was definitely a hard one to convince. When his privacy was being encroached, he tended to get snippy. And now, with the idea that he'd have a human free loader on his couch, he was looking for excuses for this not to happen.

"I change my mind," Moxxy said, turning to Blitzo in an almost panicked state while he attempted to count of reasons why he and Milly should be left alone. "The office is the perfect place for her! It's, um, safe? And, uh uh uh, not full of my stuff. And um has water? And uh-"

"It's settled then!" Blitzo cheered, pulling Moxxy, Milly and Coco over to him in a bear hug. He was smiling brightly and seemed to be scheming something. "Ah~! What a great work team! Looking out for one another~ Caring about one another~ Sharing space and an open environment to-"

"You're not coming over tonight." Moxxy threatened Blitzo while baring his teeth. If he was gonna have to put up with one bothersome individual, he wasn't taking on the most bothersome.

"I feel like he's not telling us something," Coco said quietly to Milly.

"Don't worry about it," Milly said, also understanding what she meant. "We've got a shot gun in the closet in case anything bad happens!"

"… That does not make me feel more safe."

**\- At M'n'M (yes that's now their official ship-name as according to me) apartment -**

"Make yourself at home!" Milly called out opening the door to their small apartment. She threw her (rather large) bag across the room and started walking over to where Coco supposed was the kitchen, leaving Moxxy and Coco standing there at the entrance. "I'll go get your comforter and sleep stuff!"

"She's a house guest Milly, not a new roommate." Moxxy reminded her before turning to look at Coco while crossing his arms. He tried to think of a way of "laying the ground rules" as if asserting his authority would make this feel more comfortable. But the problem was, there weren't many house rules and Coco's not a child so he just felt ridiculous. "Just don't… Ruin my stereo system."

"You guys use Hi-Fi?" Coco said, ignoring Moxxys' statement and walking straight over to the Hi-Fi system. "And vinyl! Sweet~"

"What did I just-" Moxxy pinched the bridge of his nose, took in a deep breath, then followed her over. "I'll let you pick out an album. Just don't touch my system! I organized it!"

Coco took in the strange organization and decoration of Milly and Moxxy's home. They had a lot of music, movie and theater stuff laying around along with a few spots items and lots of books. Coco got the idea that they were less of the "married couple type" and lived a more "two weirdos in their 20's cohabitating" style of life.

"Your place is pretty cool," Coco said, admiring all of the odd interests while sitting down on the floor in front of Moxxys' vinyl collection. She turned and smiled at him brightly with eager interest. "Did you guys find all of this stuff here in Hell?"

"Well… only some of it." Moxxy scratched the back of his neck and turned to fiddle with the Hi-Fi system, hiding a mild blush. It was the first time he'd met someone who seemed to like the same stuff as him since Milly, and even then he was sure she sometimes was only humoring him. "A lot of the good stuff I-we, we picked up in the Living World."

"You can do that?" Coco asked, thumbing through albums before grinning at him sarcastically. "Isn't that stealing~?"

"Oh yeah. I'm a demon who commits murder for work everyday, and stealing cool stuff is my moral conundrum." Moxxy laughed out while rolling his eyes. It was actually the first time Coco made him smile. "Also, watch what you pick. I'll have you know I'm judging you by the first album you make me play."

"Well I'm depressed and sarcastic," Coco said, pulling out an album and handing it to Moxxy. "So turn on some Tom Waits."

"Nice choice~" Moxxy said approvingly, taking special care as he took out the record. "Wouldn't peg you for a blues kind of person."

"I'm from the south, hon." Coco put on her drawl and stood up, stretching her arms over her head. "Blues is in my blood."

Milly came back with more red comforters to find Moxxy and Coco in the living room, debating Beat poets and pulp fiction novels. With the sight of books in hands, Milly noted something they forgot.

"What did you do with the book, Coco?" Milly asked, plopping the bedding down on the couch and looking at the two of them. "You didn't leave it at the office did you?"

"No," Coco shook her head and handed 'On the Road' back to Moxxy. "I've got it in my bag. Me and Blitzo are pretty sure I should keep it on me as much as possible."

"Okay I- What's that sound?" Milly asked, confused by the music playing over her head.

"Junkyard blues," Coco summed up.

"Good analogy." Moxxy nodded his head and walked over to Milly. "Anyway, we need to change and get ready for work tomorrow. You think you can make up our uh- couch without ruining anything?"

"… I more competent then you give me credit for." Coco said dully.

"You just got kidnapped this morning," Moxxy reminded her, then pointed at her carefully. "Before you do anything: Don't. Call us first."

Moxxy sure was being paranoid about Coco touching his stuff for some reason. But, it made her think… That it's super fun teasing him.

"What if I wanna watch TV?" She asked, gesturing to the TV set.

"Call us," Moxxy said, him and Milly turning to go to their room. Obviously planning to… snuggle quietly.

"What if I wanna watch a movie?" Coco gestured to his collection of DVDs.

"Guh-" Moxxy stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Don't touch, just ask me to come in and I'll get it for you."

"If I'm thirsty and I want some water," Coco continued, now making plausible hypotheticals. "Can I get a glass or-"

"I'll do it!" Moxxy turned around to try and end this whole charade. "Look! Just don't do anything but sleep! I doubt you'll actually need anything so can you-"

"The record just stopped," Coco heard the sound of a needle rolling on the dead end of the record. "Should I change it or-"

"I'LL DO IT!" Moxxy said quickly, running over to the Hi-Fi set and putting everything back into place. "I've got all of my records organized! Don't screw up my system!"

Coco just rolled her eyes at that while Milly walked back up to her. She wasn't sure why Moxxy was being so anal about Coco being here, but he seemed to be making it obvious.

"Is he like this all the time or is just me?" Coco asked Milly with a slightly irritated look in her eyes. Moxxy had only known her for two days and apparently believes she's a walking disaster… and Coco has yet to prove him wrong. "Or is it because I'm a human?"

"It's not your fault, sweetie." Milly said consolingly, patting Coco on the shoulder. "Mox is just kind of protective of his stuff, and our privacy I guess. But you'll get used to it!"

"It sounds like he just doesn't trust me at all," Coco complained lightly before looking up at Milly with a skeptical glance. "I mean, he thinks I'm weak and harmless, how much of a mess does he actually believe I'll make?"

"Well, you did sort of summon a blast of fire that literally cut off a demons arm and singed the office carpets pretty badly." Milly reminded Coco about earlier today and chuckled a bit. Yeah, those were good times. "Maybe that's what he's worried about."

"… I don't even know how that works." Coco admitted, being more scared of that then anyone else.

"Even more of a reason to be afraid," Moxxy said, walking up to the two of them and crossing his arms again. "Look, it's getting late and we've all got work tomorrow since apparently you work with us too. Now, if there isn't anything serious you want from us."

He was gesturing to mean that Coco should shut up and go to sleep already, which logically is a good reason. But! Coco's brain doesn't really work on logic right. Right now, it's working on illogic and a need to keep talking to someone.

So she was looking around for an excuse to keep them here to entertain her long, but she wasn't sure what was left to talk about anymore given that Moxxy's already poured water over half of her efforts already. And the, something caught her eyes.

"Oh!" Coco said enthusiastically as she marched over to a small cabinet with colorful boxes that reminded her of her first year at college. "You've got board games!"  
"We're never getting any sleep tonight…" Moxxy said, standing there and letting out an exhausted sigh.

**Several hours of Cards Against Humanity later** -

"Did you pick this game because you're good at it or because of the irony?" Milly asked shuffling the cards one more time. She had been grinning the entire time, but she was staring to become more and more exhausted.

"Both," Coco said with a grin. Coco had been dominating the game with an equal amount of sarcasm and structured reasons that kept giving her the most cards.

Most people would expect Cards Against Humanity to be a friendly game amongst immature people and perfectly harmless. That is, unless you have two competitive people sitting at the same table. And there was: Moxxy and Coco.

Coco kept the game going by just inciting Moxxy to keep trying in little ways: A little smirk, a sly comment, giving Milly an eye roll. And this is how Moxxy found himself sitting at the same table and playing for far longer than any mature person should.

"How can anyone be this good at Cards Against Humanity when they're sleep deprived…" Moxxy complained, resting his head on his arm and groaning. He desperately wanted to go to bed now. But he wanted to win the last hand more…

"That's the best time to play CAH!" Coco exclaimed excitedly, fiddling with her cards and smiling on good-old college days. "It makes you more creative!"  
"Being mentally insane is not the same as creative!" Moxxy yelled, sitting up to show how non-sensical that was.

"Yes it is!" Coco defended herself and her lack-of mental capacity.

"Yeah! Says' who!?" Milly agreed while pouting.

"Don't defend her, Milly!" Moxxy said and then turned to debate Coco again. "And you! Stop using non-logic to support yourself and lifestyle!"

"It's worked so far in my life." Coco defended, sipping her hot-water and proving no one can debate against her without going slightly insane. "Just look how many rounds I'm winning!"

Again, Moxxy slammed his head against the table and let out a long groan. It was the third time he's done that tonight and it seemed to be a habit.

"Can't you just fall asleep now?" Moxxy complained, lifting his head up to question how Coco was maintaining relative sanity so far. "What were you doing at the office all night?"

That was a good question; one that took Coco an uncomfortably long time to answer because she had to think back on the last 24hours without screaming.

**Let's take a look at Coco's first night in Hell:**

9:00pm: Tried to sleep on the piano.

9:30pm: Realized it wasn't gonna happen until every gun was organized according to size, caliber and place of origin.

10:30pm: Crying.

11:00pm: Might as well organize all of the ammunition by size.

11:35pm: Crying.

11:45pm: Why stop at size? Organize ammunition by manufactures too.

12:30am: Stare at nothing.

12:45am: Realize your place in hell matters even less than your place on Earth.

1:00am: Cry because life is meaningless.

1:05am: Wonder if they keep snacks in here?

1:30am: After eating the two protein bars, stare blankly into space again.

1:45am: Wonder if they have anything to drink in here?

2:00am: Organize all of the alcohol bottles by alcohol volume.

2:30am: Debate with self about anime.

3:00am: Lay on top of piano, questioning existence and wondering if she can sleep yet.

3:45am: Play 'Old Town Road' on piano.

4:00am: Is it too early to start drinking yet?

4:05am: Yes it is, Coco. You're in Hell, not in rehab.

4:06am: Play with knives.

4:20am: Clean up the mess you made playing with knives.

4:45am: Organize knives according to size.

5:15am: Sit under the piano and try to sleep again.

5:45am: This whole sleep thing isn't working out.

5:50am: Is that poison? Can poison be organize?

6:30am: Yes but only if you label everything and put it in pretty bottles.

6:35am: Let's make some coffee.

The uncomfortable silence while Coco was thinking was not questioned.

"… I was productive." Coco confirmed.

"You just sat there quiet for three minutes and then said "I was productive"," Milly said, pointing at Coco with a worried expression. "Girl, you need some sleep."

"We all do…" Moxxy complained, sinking in deeper into his arms.

**The next day - **

"Good morning~~!" Blitzo cheered, seeing Milly, Moxxy and Coco all walk through the door together. He was overly excited to be able to see them all together and had his camera out and ready to commemorate this moment. "And how was our first sleep over as-"

"Don't talk until I've had coffee," Moxxy said, walking in quickly away with his bag and his eyes intent on sitting at his desk.

"… Good to see you too." Blitzo responded, trying not to drop his smile and hit Moxxy with his camera.

Coco walked in and looked around, noting she had no instructions of what to do or any clue what you're actually supposed to do for work in Hell. It also didn't help that it looked like all Blitzo and Luna did in the office was sit around and do bull shit until they showed up. But she didn't want to show how unsure of herself she still is in front of Blitzo so she went ahead and made herself useful in the only way she could.

"I'll go make some," was all Coco said before walking straight over to the kitchen, flashing Blitzo a quick and amicable smile. "Good morning, Blitzo!"

Blitzo watched them disperse before he could try and play the authority card on them and felt a little abandoned. Luna walked over the same time Milly began to drag herself over to where he stood.

"Your boy-toy looks more pissy today than usual," Luna stated, turned to give Milly a slight look. "What? You didn't peg him hard enough last night?"

"No…" Milly had no extra energy to give a snide comment in return, she just rubbed her eyes and tried to encourage herself to stay polite in front of her boss. "We just didn't get much… any sleep last night. Coco kinda kept us up all night."

"Oh~" Blitzo said in a deeper tone while smirking. "Didn't think the girl had it in her! I always knew the innocent looking ones were the wild rides in the world, if you know what I mean~"

"Wha-No! No no no~ Not like that." Milly said, straightening up a little and waving off that comment. "She just kept us up playing Cards Against Humanity until the sky turned red again."

"… Nerds." Luna dismissed and took out her phone. "Why didn't you just tell her to fuck off and go to bed?"

"Or fuck her and go to bed," Blitzo said, then saw both Luna and Milly give him disgusted looks and became defensive. "What!? It's an option! Probably would have worked."

"We got really into playing the card game…" Milly said exhausted. "So… it's kind of our faults too."

"Hmmm" Blitzo pondered this for a minute, looking like he was enjoying his moment to just think deeply in a comical pose. "What's keeping her up and so cheery then? Is she criminally insane? How could I over look that? Then she'd be a really good first time hire…."

"I think she's just not used to Hell yet," Milly explained, already putting down his strange line of thought. She then sighed and just smiled, recognizing that she could probably understand this to a degree. "We can handle a couple of sleepless nights. Plus, it was kind of fun! You learn a lot about someone when spend over 8 hours playing an adult card game together."

"Like what?" Luna asked half-interested.

"She has a strange way of twisting logic to her own interests," Moxxy said, sitting over at his own desk and looking burnt out with his head on the table, looking out at the red sky. "And she knows how to make things worse for everyone…"

Both Luna and Blitzo looked confused at that for a moment before they saw Coco walked up holding two mugs of coffee. One was intentionally for her, which Luna stole and walked away with Milly. Coco momentarily felt resentful for that before holding up the other mug and giving it to Blitzo with a smile. After yesterday, she was starting to warm up to this devil.

"So what's my first assignment, Boss?" Coco asked, looking eager to start working.

Blizto stood there with an idolized look as if Coco had given him more validation than his own father ever did.

It was pretty unnerving.

Coco was already having a hard time coming to grips with the potential side-effects to her morality scale this would cause. But, she also believed in being productive. And figured just checking to see how evil someone actually is and doing paperwork wouldn't really effect anyone. After all, there are probably some Wall Street workers who make it into Heaven anyway.

"Glad to see you're ready!" Blitzo exclaimed, taking one arm around her and pulling Coco into a side hug while walking her around the office. "Welcome to IMP! I'm so excited to get you started on your first day! First! Let me give you a tour of the whole office!"

"… But I already know where you keep the guns?" Coco said more to herself than to Blitzo. What else was he gonna show her that she already didn't know how to find?

"Do you wanna know where we keep the bodies?" Blitzo asked giddily.

"…" Coco just screwed up her face in horror and shook her head quickly.

"Well it doesn't matter," Blitzo said, still pulling her around and just walking her around the same places she's already seen and cried in. "You see, for your position, we're gonna have you doin' a lot of paperwork and general research. You see! Our company strives for the best in our work. We provide our clients with quality services and fast responsive actions. And we need good data and record keeping for that!"

While she was pretty sure Blitzo was just putting on an act to play-Boss for a minute, he was somehow selling her on this job. It sounded a lot safer, casual and lot more normal than anything she'd seen in Hell so far. And that's not right. Something normal can't happen this soon.

'This is still murder we're talking about, right?' Coco wondered, feeling like the business sounded strangely normal except operated in Hell. 'It sounds no different from an insurance company speech.'

"Okay," Coco said, looking around the office to see if there's anything new or off about the same place she's been semi-trapped in. So far, everything was in place and just like a pulp-fiction detectives' office. "So… what would you need me to do exactly?"

"Glad you asked!" Blitzo cheered. Apparently this was the right thing to say because he went into an entire script-like play. "Have you ever tried killing someone before?"

'Oh yeah, I'm at the right office alright."

"No," Coco said, looking a little irritated by that question again. But at least it cleared up the confusion. Well… some of the confusion.

"Have you ever thought about it?" He asked with a grin.

"… That feels like trap question." Coco said, strategically avoiding the question so she wouldn't have to lie.

"It was," Blitzo nodded and went on. "Well! Since you've obviously thought about it, you know how hard it is to pull off a murder perfectly! You see, murder is like art. Take Picasso for instance."  
"That metaphor aesthetically makes a lot of sense," Coco remembered every single Picasso she's ever seen and thought about how murder and mutilation could be interpreted in that.

"Well, you see, a good murder needs to be pulled off well enough where people will stare at it for hours and not quiet actually get it." Blitzo said, stopping at his desk and pulling out a file, He seemed to be lovingly flipping through pages and smiling at the pictures they took of that particular murder scene. "There's technique, style, design, materials and sourcing information. You see, we craft our murder in the finest fashion with the most creative ways we have available! All with our clients personal vision involved to make them feel like they had a direct hand in it~"

"… Never thought of murder so pleasantly." Coco said, blinking a few times when she realized she actually the sound of this kind of violent behavior.

'Maybe I'm not getting enough sleep,' Coco summed up. 'But is sleeping in Hell an actual good thing?'

"So what do I do?" Coco echoed. He was making this job sound both more interesting and more uncomfortable because it was related to murder.

"You're in charge of making sure we know what we're doing!" Blitzo cheered, pointing up in the air and taking a sip of coffee. "Mmm~ Good coffee. You see, we sometimes get a little lost, a little over loaded and, well, let's just say… We get one human mixed up for another."

"…" Coco interpreted this information as a bad thing. "Have you been killing a lot of random people lately?"

"Just minor mix ups," Blitzo smiled and dismissed.

"You have!" Coco pointed her finger at him and glared.

"And that's why you're here!" Blitzo opened another cabinet and pulled out a box labeled "Smart Persons' Stuff" and put it on his desk. "You're going to be in charge of location, person of interest research, medical history and insurance background, weapons and murder recommendations, and over all filling. Plus! If you see anything that could be used for extra billing information, let me know and write me up a file."

With that, Blitzo thrusted the box into Cocos' hands, which almost made her drop to the floor. Steadying herself, Coco looked down and saw it was filled with maps, geography profiles, weapons catalogues, medical books, a few psychology books and old profiles of older targets. It looked like this was all of the information they had to actually start doing background checks and record keeping, but they stopped half way through and just threw it into the box.

"You good at keeping recites?" Blitzo asked curiously.

"Uh, I can do that." Coco said, looking up confused. "I'm good at math."

"Great!" Blitzo pulled out a giant binder filled with reciets, IOUs and death threats and dumped it onto of the box and making her drop to the floor from the load. He bent over her and smiled, giving her yet another responsibility she wasn't qualified for. "You can be our book keeper too! Just keep the records in the files, keep the accounts tidy, and we should be all good!"

"Okay," Coco laid on the floor for a moment, becoming comfortable with the sense of drastic over expectations before sitting up again and putting everything back neatly into the box. "Seems straight forward enough. But what about the book? What am I gonna, I mean, am I gonna be the one opening the portal from now on or are you doing that?"

"Oh no no!" Blitzo waved that off, taking out said magic book and putting it on his desk. "You're just the books' owner, so we can only use it if you're in the same room. But! You're still too weak to be opening up a portal on your own here. So instead, you'll just hold on to it here while we're in the human world and we'll pop back, opening and closing the portal when we're done!"

"… Does that make me an accomplice to murder?" Coco asked more to herself than Blitzo.

"Who cares!" Blitzo cheered, picking her up and steadying her on her feet while he side hugged her. "Shouldn't make any difference on the morality scale either way!"

"I'm pretty sure it would," Coco said worriedly. But, even if it did effect her, she was more concerned now about the apparent office work was going to have to carry out everyday. So, changing the subject, she tried to find the best way to put down this heavy box of crap. "Can I go to my desk?"

Blitzo smiled even wider and started pulling her over back towards the main lobby.

"So glad you asked!" He cheered, dragging her behind him as she tried to make him stop but he just kept pulling her even as her shoes scrapped against the floor. "Now, we had to improvise a little to give you your own space. I figured, since you're a human and all, keeping you out of the public eye as much as possible would be a good thing and having no windows to drive you insane would also be a plus! So! I fixed a few things up, tell me if you like one or the other more."

The first place he pulled her was inside the kitchen. He had definitely improvised… something.

"What do you think!"

Blitzo posed in front of two trashcans holding up a piece of wood with a small sign that said "KoKo" written on it. It was right next to the coffee machine and had a bathroom organizer beside it to look like a filing cabinet.

Definitely points for creativity.

"…" Coco stared it the ensemble for a moment, trying not to feel insulted, before looking up at Blitzo with honest contempt. "Can I… have an actual desk?"

'My life may be trash but work space will not be,' was her solemn self promise.

Blitzo sort of stared at her, then looked back at the obviously ill advised desk space, then shrugged his shoulders. Even he knew his art project was crap.

"Eh," Blitzo said, knocking the thing to pieces with a flick of his tail then promptly forgetting about it. "Worth a try! I've got another place for you in the lobby next to Luna. At least the wifi works better there."

"Shouldn't we-" Coco pointed down at the mess Blitzo just made.

He only looked down at the mess for a moment, before taking Coco by the shoulder again and starting to walk and take care of it at the same time.

"Moxxy!" Blitzo called out, pulling him and Coco away. "Clean up the kitchen!"

"What did you do!" Moxxy yelled from his desk, obviously already getting up and getting ready to panic. "I'm not in charge of your mess in this-"

"It's in your job description~" Blitzo sang, walking him and Coco away from the area. "Thank you~"

They took the the four steps from the kitchen up to Lunas' desk and stood there in front of her for a moment. Luna was just sitting there reading another back issue of whatever they publish here, and Coco was concerned how Blitzo wasn't just butting into her personal space and time like he does with everyone else. Now that she thought about it, Coco noticed that Blitzo definitely acted differently around Luna than anyone else, more doting and lenient wise. It felt like he was everyone else's boss but she was his boss at the end of the day.

"Lunie~" Blitzo started in softly leaning in carefully to avoid making it seem like he was towering over her. More like he was asking her for permission then telling her what to do. "Our new background checker needs some office space, can she take the desk across the room from you?"

"Whatever," Luna said, looking up at Coco and giving her a half-glance. "You gonna stink up the office with your human smell or put any of those retarded inspirational posters up?"

"Uh, no." Coco said, looking a bit confused.

"Fine." Luna pulled up her magazine and went back to ignoring everyone. "Just don't bother me or ask me to help or anything."

"Great!" Blitzo cheered, pulling Coco next to him and turning them around to walk over to the empty desk next to the window. "I know you two will get along just fine! Just think of Luna as your office mentor, she's one of our best admins here!"

"I noticed you also only have one admin here." Coco said, following him and knowing Blitzo didn't hear a word of what Luna just said.

Coco immediately saw why Blitzo wanted her in the kitchen in the beginning. This desk was the opposite of privacy and safety. From here, Coco would see every demon walk through and have access to the window view all during work.

'But,' Coco at least managed to find the bright side as she put the box down next to the old desktop computer they had plugged in on the desk. 'At least it's an actual desk.'

And she found a new place to curl up and cry under!

"Just put everything together and get settled," Blitzo started, whipping off some dust off the top. "It's a little old, hasn't been used in awhile. But! It's got everything you'll need to-"

They both heard the computer start buzzing loudly for some reason and turned to see it flash code for a few seconds before shutting off and then smoking. Blitzo and Coco stared at it, then turned and stared at each other before Blitzo just smiled.

"Okay!" Blitzo shouted, already starting to turn away and leave. "Just settled down at your desk! And remember! Everything there is company property! Don't break it!"  
"You can't just leave me with a broken computer and blame it on me!" Coco shouted at him before he walked off. "Goddamnit…"

"And read the Employee Handbook!" Blitzo shouted out from his office.

"Where's the-"

Coco didn't finish that question because a random book was chucked at her and landed inside the waste basket. Taking a second to over having something thrown at her and narrowly miss, Coco picked out the book and saw that it was indeed the handbook.

"…" She stared at it for a moment and turned to Luna. "What page tells me I'm not allowed to kill our boss?"

"Page 78," Luna stated from memory. "Hardest rule to follow."

Putting the book down, Coco looked over her desk and knew she needed to give it a good scrub down. It was covered in dust, including the old desktop and keyboard. But she was also surprised to see a nice vase with dried flowers on it sitting on the end of it. A welcome present!

She stared at the dark red vase with an apple pattern motif on it for a minute and then noticed it had a small note attached to it that read "Welcome to your new home! Love, IMP family". She picked it up and stared at it, wavering between emotions of happiness and uneasy resentment.

'.. I seriously hope they don't expect me to start living in this office," Coco thought, putting it down and sighing a little as she reminded herself that this sort of was the safest place for her now. 'Then again. I don't think I'm ever gonna want to leave this office and walk around Hell willingly…'

This seemed to be an overly depressing first day. Or maybe she was just overly depressed. So, to try and distract herself, Coco looked around at her new desk and tried to find some bright sides.

Beside her desk were old posters that looked like circus promotionals. They were interesting designed like the old school black and white prints with red to add intensity. As she got to study them, she noticed that they all advertised "The Amazing Blitzo!" Or "Blitzo Siblings" as headliners.

'Maybe Blitzo used to be in the circus?' Coco wondered, looking back at Blitzos' office and trying to put two and two together. He definitely had a performers' kind of personality and way walking. Maybe he started this business to act as his own kind of ringleader? "Makes sense, this place is kind of like a three ring circus. I guess he tries distancing himself from his old life by making the 'O' silent now.'

"So!" Milly appeared out of nowhere, scaring the Hell out of Coco, and leaned against her new desk with a smile. "How do you like the office so far! Got your own desk and everything!"

"Please don't give me a heart attack…" Coco said quietly before turning around and putting on as sincere of a smile as she could manage. "It's good. I… got a desk!"

"More than what we got on our first day here," Moxxy said, walking up from the kitchen and standing next to Milly. "Well, we're supposed to give you a contract, but we kind of don't want to start making deals with humans in Hell. So this whole thing's gonna be kind of improvised."

"Oh that makes so much more sense now!" Coco said, incredibly relieved! "I was almost afraid this was the best you could do."

"It is," Milly said, still smiling. Not getting that was a terrifying fact.

Moxxy saw that now Coco looked like she was mentally screaming and decided to cut in with non-office related matters.

"Well, since you're gonna be working out in the open like this," Moxxy started, digging into his pocket and pulling out two sticks of eyeliner and some red blush. "You should at least wear this."

"Makeup?" Coco said, looking confused at Moxxy. "Uh, I'm sort of allergic to a lot of that stuff. And I figured since I'm still wearing you and Blitzo's clothes that the dress code was-"

"It's not about that," Milly said, waving that idea off before pointing at her face. "You should try and look a little less human-y if you're gonna work around here! A good way to do that is by wearing some thick eye liner."

"You know how to put makeup on," Moxxy started, handing over the make up. "Right?"

"I've never put on this stuff before," Coco said, looking down at the make up and then up at them. Clarifying her statement. "By myself."

"Uh," Moxxy complained, pulling out Cocos' desk chair and gesturing for her to sit down. "Here. Let me do something simple then."

Coco wanted to say 'no' but then Milly took her by the shoulders and forced her down. She looked really excited about whatever Moxxy was going to do to her face.

"You're gonna love this!" She cheered, standing behind Moxxy with an excited pose.

"That's a good expression," Moxxy commented on Cocos' completely terrified look. "You should try and hold it like that forever."

"No problem." Coco commented. There would be no problem with staying completely terrified in Hell.

Moxxy only had to double outline her eyes and add red blush as eye makeup before it looked a little different. The bigger, more exaggerated eyes definitely added a dramatic quality, and as long as she kept the fake horns on and Milly suicide wrist bands on her arms, she'd be a lot less noticeable.

"Done," Moxxy said, stepping back and studying his work. "Not bad. I wish you didn't look so… innocent."

"Yeah," Milly said, turning her head to the side to look at Coco as well. "It makes me want to push her down and laugh."

"Makes me want to push her out the window," Luna chimed in.

"I feel so safe now." Coco said sarcastically, sitting there and just assuming she doesn't look any worse than she possibly could.

And the next moment, Blitzo came bustling in to see the whole office together. He apparently looked incredibly happy to see everyone some-what getting along and made a heartfelt smile.

"Now this is the office family portrait I've always wanted!" He cheered, and in the next moment pulled Milly, Moxxy and Coco over beside Lunas' desk and held out the camera with his tail. "Okay, everyone! Gather 'round! Group picture! Let's see those smiles!"

"Don't touch me," Moxxy hissed as Blitzo had him pressed directly against his side.

"My face and hair and body aren't emotionally ready for this," Coco said over dramatically but completely honest.

Blitzo took several photos where Coco was sure she looked hideous and let them go. Everyone grumbled for a moment and Blitzo pulled Coco back over to him for more examination. He tilted her head up to have a look and smiled in appreciation.

"I love this look on you, Coco!" Blitzo said delightfully then turned his head and gave Moxxy a smirk. "Have some skills with drag I see, Mox."

Luna chuckled under her breath and Moxxy just growled, walking out of the room. Milly followed him and left the three of them alone. Coco was about to ask what that was all about until Blitzo dropped a single random file in her hands.

"I got a little first job for ya," Blitzo said cheerfully. "I want you to look up every detail we have on a case we got yesterday while we were out. The clients' gonna come here after lunch to pay and we'll need to show him why we're overcharging. Remember! Be creative!"

And then he left her there standing and wondering what to do next.

"… Well, better make sure only one person dies today," was all Coco said before going back to clean her desk and get started.

All in all, it's actually quiet easy to do this job. Once Coco fixed the problem with the computers' hard drive, she was able to log on to the internet and actually work pretty quickly. With social media, public records and basic common sense, you can find anybody in the world and know how to kill them in about 20 minutes.

So far, the only difficult part with working here was working so close to Luna.

Working next to Luna is like living next to a military base. There's always noise, something being cursed at, and the ever impending threat of potential violence. Worse than all of that are the actual moments when Luna is quiet. Then, in that unsteady calm, you kind of wonder if she's just too distracted to be pissed off or plotting your impending doom.

This is all weird given she wasn't quiet sure what Luna was supposed to do exactly. Other than answer phones and yell at people, it didn't really look like Luna actually did any work most of the time. So… why is she getting paid to be here?

"Blitzo! I'm going on lunch!" Luna shouted, getting up and walking away while pulling out the phone chord.

"But it's 10am," Coco said, realizing Luna wasn't listening to her.

"Okay, sweetie!" Blitzo said, leaning out the door after she left and looking over at Coco. "You finish that file for me?"

"I think so?" Coco said, holding it up with all the information she could find plus some extra things she made. "I wrote up a report on it too, found some gun law restrictions in the area and he's got a history of heart attacks in his family. So uh… please try not to make this painful for him."

"How sweet," Blitzo said taking the file and flipping through it. He nodded like he approved and then put it under his shoulder. "Nice first work. Now, if you could organize everything in here."

Blitzo gestured to the box on your desk and then put another one on top of it.

"And in here."

He then took out a binder and put it on top of them.

"And organize all these recites."

Put another set of files next to the boxes.

"Organize our cases chronologically in the database."

And finally put another set of case files down on top of those.

"And just check our Billings to make sure I haven't forgotten to pressure money out of someone and we'll be all set!"

Before Coco could voice her concerns or ask him to write all of that down, Blitzo turned away and left her with a mountain of paperwork to be digitally archived. On her first day.

"…" Coco stared at the pile of work in front of her and felt like she was having hot flashes.

Who else comes in other than Milly and Moxxy to see Coco staring at paperwork in front of her like a zombie. Both of them sympathized because both of them have been there.

"Yeah," Moxxy said, waking up to Cocos' desk and giving her a sympathetic look. "He did that to me my first day too."

"You need some help, sweetie?" Milly asked, tapping her shoulder and giving a small smile.

"… no," Coco shook her head. Already feeling tired but feeling more responsible then overwhelmed about this. "No. I should do it. It's my job. Plus, now I'll know where everything is."

"At least stop for lunch in an hour," Moxxy advised. "We've got some food left over in the kitchen."

"Let's eat together later," Milly said, patting her shoulder and walking away.

It was a long morning…

By the time Luna got back, she saw Coco had sprawled out every file around her desk, on the floor, on the walls, and even hanging from the ceiling. This sort of decorative filing system was both a fire hazard and an eye sore. So Luna obviously knew who to direct her frustrations at.

"Hey!" Luna barked in the general direction of Cocos' desk. "Keep your fucking mess to yourself! You think I've got time to step all over your-"

"SHHHHH!" Coco said, crouching on top of her desk as she stared at the circle of paperwork and numbers that were now speaking to her. "I have a system! It all makes sense now! Death and money all make sense now…."

"…" Luna stared at the crazy person on her desk before getting irritated again and trying to fix it. "Blitzo! Fix your new employee! She's going crazy!"

"This soon?" Blitzo said, sticking his head out of his office. "I thought it would at least take a week!"

At that, all three imps popped out and saw the giant hanging system of math and accounts that was their front lobby and how Coco was definitely doing a Terry Davis on them.

"… Okay." Moxxy said, looking tired just trying to gleam how Cocos' crazy mind was working. "That settles it. She needs to sleep."

"Maybe it's time to take a break, honey," Milly said to Coco across the room, sort of afraid of stepping over the crazy amount of work around the place. Emphasis on crazy.

"…" While the super powerful agent of id and Coco's own illogical spiral into genius-madness wanted to take over. Her own natural inclination to not care too much took over at the fact it should be lunch time. "… I could eat."

The psychotic genius mess was left alone while Milly and Moxxy walked into the kitchen with Coco. They were attempting to both feed her and figure out how to slip her a sleeping pill.

"Do you want any yams?" Milly asked.

"YUCHH!" Coco made the most disgusted face she could muster. "No!"

"What's wrong with yams?" Moxxy asked, confused by the sudden revulsion he's never seen Coco present.

"They exist." Coco clarified, laying her head on the table while expressing her unreasonable hate for a specific vegetable. "They taste like whatever syphilis is like."

"Luna could confirm that," Moxxy said, spilling literal and figurative salt.

"HEY!" Luna yelled, overhearing all of that.

Moxxy and Milly had a little chuckle over that while still raiding the pantry.

"You gotta eventually go to sleep, hon," Milly said, reaching towards the top pantry to try and grab a box of something she hadn't seen before. "You can't just stay up all night and go to work without going crazy once!"  
"Or at least save the psychotic breaks until after lunch." Moxxy cleared up while taking the box from Milly and studying it, then looking up at her confused. "Honey, this is cereal."

"Oh!" Milly took the box and then recognized it. "I forgot we left this here!"

"Hasn't that been here for months?" Moxxy asked. "Why do we still have that?"

"Somebody's gotta eat it eventually~" Milly waved her hand and sat it down. "Coco? You okay with cereal for lunch? I think we ran out of-"

They both turned around to see Coco had in fact fallen asleep on the table and was completely unaware of whatever they were saying. Milly and Moxxy looked at each other and nodded, then carefully crept out and started thinking of fast food places to go to.

"Well," Moxxy said after carefully closing the door and turning to look at Luna and Blitzo. "The human's asleep. We should let her stay that way for awhile if we want her brain to be functioning."

"Good plan," Blitzo said, turning to gesture over to Coco's desk. "Even better timing because we have a client coming in a little while and I didn't want her to be traumatized too early in the work cycle! So, about this office mess…"

"… You seriously want me to clean it?" Moxxy asked, looking dejected and crushed.

"Well I certainly don't want ME to clean it!" Blitzo said, flicking his hands in the air then smiling. "Besides! I've got a very important meeting come up and have to practice my smooth talking routine! So just put all this stuff in a bunch of boxes and hope she doesn't have a melt down when she wakes up!"

"If she even remembers doing this when she wakes up…" Moxxy grumbled, looking at the butt load of work the human he didn't want left him to clean up.

"I'll help, sweetie," Milly said consolingly, touching his shoulder and smiling. "We'll go out to lunch after."

Coco didn't wake up until 4pm, and that was only because Luna kicked in the kitchen door and started rifling through the refrigerator.

"Huh!?" Cocos' head popped up off of the table and looked around the kitchen. She momentarily forgot where she was and wondered what was happening. "Oh god… Please tell me it was all a dream. Hell. IMP. Murder. Please please please tell me it was just one giant nightmare…"

"As much of a nightmare as we all have to after-life in," Luna bitterly stated. Not caring to give Coco a calm, easy way to revert back to reality.

"HOLY FUCK IT'S LUNA I WASN'T DREAMING!"

Coco sort of just sat there and stared at Luna who glared right back at her. Luna was not any more pissy than regular, but Coco sort of was too extra for her own good.

"You could stop fucking doing that sometime." Luna barked out, shutting the refrigerator door with her foot. "Screaming every time you see a demon in Hell is starting to get real old."

"I just woke up," Coco tried defending herself and then was surprised when she realized she actually fell asleep. "Oh woah, I actually fell asleep here. Hey, where is everybody? How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours," Luna said boredly. She sat down some milk on the table and went to grab a bowl from the cabinets. "They went off on a job. Took your file. Should be back in like ten minutes."

"Oh, okay." Coco realized this meant she was actually alone with Luna. And… had absolutely nothing in common with her. "So, ah, why do you work here again…?"  
"Adoption agreement," Luna grumbled, setting down a bowl on the table and taking a box of cereal that had been lying around. "Blitzo set the whole thing up. This ain't my scene, but it's not a bad gig. As long as nobody mess' with me, I get a paycheck, I'm good."  
"Okay," Coco sat up and decided to get some of the same thing that Luna was getting. She figured talking to Luna wasn't that bad, and she should probably make an effort to understand her… and this office a little more. "So, you're the receptionist right?"

"What? Me answerin' phones wasn't makin' that obvious enough?" Luna said, starting to get defensive.

"Just wondering," Coco sat down a bowl and poured herself some cereal. Luna was strangely defensive and territorial for some reason. "So, are you and Blitzo friends or-"

"Look!" Luna slammed a hand down to get Coco to stop talking. Apparently, she needed to lay down some ground rules. "Just because you and I have to work together doesn't make us friends! I don't want know shit about you, because I don't care. So don't go expectin' to get friendly with me all because we work across from each other."

"…" Coco stared in absolute horror-mixed-confusion at Luna for a second before answering again. "Okay? I just thought that… I was being nice…"

"Yeah, assaulting me with questions and boring small talk. Real nice." Luna rolled her eyes and looked back at her meal. "Next time you want to bother me, try to make it something that's not about how fucking clueless you are about demons."

With that, Luna made her drop the entire conversation and go back to her bowl. And weirdly enough, that hurt more than Coco was expecting it to. She didn't desperately want to be friends with Luna, she just wanted to be friendly with the person she works with!

But was Luna right? Was Coco inadvertidly being… invasive? Pestering? Or is Luna just a huge bitch? Either way, Coco's conversation skills were now limited.

"…" But that didn't mean Coco was gonna stop trying. "Does this cereal taste old?"

"Yeah," Luna confirmed, still eating it along with Coco. "It does."

** \- At M'n'Ms . -**

"Please go to bed tonight," Moxxy bitched at Coco as they all walked through the door again. "Some of us need to actually be fully functioning for work tomorrow."

Moxxy, Milly and Coco walked into the apartment all carrying groceries together. Work actually ended on time for once and let them all do errands that needed to be run. Moxxy and Mill needed to go grocery shopping and Coco needed to learn how to cross the street without holding one of their hands.

"Hey, I fell asleep earlier today." Coco reminded him while walking into the kitchen behind Moxxy.

"Passing out on the kitchen table doesn't count," Moxxy ruled over Cocos' definition of sleep. "And could you even really call that sleep?"  
"I wasn't awake, was I?" Coco said sarcastically before looking confused. "Oh wait, I was asleep then right?"

"Did you have any dreams?" Milly asked, interested perked.

"Not that I could remember," Coco said with a shrug.

"You're exhausted," Moxxy said while putting things away and rolling his eyes. "Like all of us. So get some sleep tonight and don't have a psychotic break tomorrow."

"No promises on that one," Coco said before looking back at their groceries. "Hey, did we get everything?"

"I left a bag at the door," Milly said, starting to put stuff away into the fridge. "Could you get it for me, Hon?"

"Sure!" Coco called out, walking over to the door and starting to talk to herself. "Maybe I should start asking what I can help out with here. Don't wanna become a couch bum for them."

As she opened the door, debating her own conditions for staying in Hell, Coco looked up and saw Blitzo towering above her and holding a bag of groceries.

"Hello, sweetie~" Blitzo played, having fun with this improvised routine and shoving the bag into Cocos' hands while he walked through the door. "Busy day at the office! Man I am glad to be home!"

"…" Coco stood there for a moment holding both the groceries and her sanity together, before beginning the questions. "Why are you here?"

"Well don't just stand there with the door wide open! You could catch death!" Blitzo bickered before shutting the door and wrapping an arm around Cocos' shoulders, pulling her inside the house and continuing the play. "Aw~ You silly thing~ Is it so awful that your loving, caring boss decided to pop on in and check on his favorite new employee?"

"Yes," Coco answered while being dragged against her will the the kitchen. This all seemed like more work then necessary just to bother her. "Again with the taking me places I don't want to go to."

"You wound me, my dear~" Blitzo taunted before appearing before the kitchen with Coco and surprising M'n'M. "Good evening my work-life imbalance!"

Mill and Moxx stood there and stared for a moment, both having just been cleaning and getting ready to cook. Moxxy was the first to act, narrowing his eyes at Blitzo and taking care of this as soon as he could.

"Get out," Moxxy said to Blitzo.

"Love the warm welcome, Moxx," Blitzo ignored the obvious demand and turned to look at Coco. "So what are we having for dinner tonight, Honey?"

"Why is he asking me?" Coco asked Milly with a pleading look, who just gave her a shrug.

"We are having nothing!" Moxxy yelled, gesturing to the kitchen. "Us! Are having dinner. You! Are leaving!"

"Well that was stupid." Blitzo teased.

"His grammar was only…. Slightly terrible." Coco tried to defend while still being put in the crossfire.

"Get out of my house!" Moxxy again demanded.

"Sweetie, I think you have to be more specific," Milly said, pointing at Coco to gesture they only wanted one of them to leave.

"Oh, right," Moxxy nodded before picking up a knife and pointing directly at the door. "Get the FUCK out of my house!"

"I think that wasn't what she meant…" Coco said, starting to peal herself away from Blitzo.

"Alright fine!" Blitzo said, holding up his hands in the air in a form of mock-surrender. "I know when I'm not wanted!"

"No you don't." Moxxy stated.

After the knife threat, it looked and sounded like Blitzo left and they all let out a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong with having Blitzo here?" Coco asked, setting down the groceries and taking everything out. "I mean, he seems like a nice guy when he's not actively trying to murder anyone. And even then he's kind of charming!"

"That's his problem," Moxxy said, turning to start chopping vegetables as he complained. "He thinks he can charm his way into and out of everything! It gets pretty annoying dealing with someone as immature as him as our boss, and he keeps trying to insert himself into our lives even when we're done with work!"  
"Moxx just means we try to keep our privacy. And Blitzo be… a little… Weeeeeeell he really likes being a part of everything." Milly explained, laughing it off a little while taking out a pot. "Can you put that stuff away for us, Sweetie?"

"Sure thing."

Coco took the milk and butter and walked over to the fridge, only to have it open and… it looked like Blitzo was sitting in there and reorganizing everything for them.

"I see you ran out of soy milk," Blitzo said, setting the carton of milk down next to the eggs and smiling up at Coco. "Are you lactose intolerant? You didn't tell me that!"

"…" Coco stared in horror for a moment before processing the next question. "Why are you in the fridge?"

"Stop setting up a portal into my house!" Moxxy yelled at Blitzo while standing behind Coco. "And don't crush my tomatoes!"

"Well excuse me for worrying about the health of one of my precious employees!" Blitzo bickered, standing up then again holding Cocos' head in a small hug against his chest. "I mean, just what have you been feeding her these last few days? Pizza? Chinese food? Cereal!"

"That's all stuff you gave her," Milly pointed out.

"This is a growing human child!" Blitzo brushed it aside and decided to act like a protective parental figure now. "Who we must feed and cherish until her untimely demise here in Hell!"

"… I'm 27." Coco reminded, now getting irritated. "And I can take care of my own health, Blitzo. Please stop saying I'm gonna die."

"I only do this because I love you." Blitzo said, ending it with a pat on her head.

"OUT!" Moxxy demanded, pointing at the door.

"Alright!" Blitzo complained, now leaving while giving a scathing remark. "And your pantry sucks by the way! Nobody eats gluten free anymore!"  
"Stop judging my kitchen!" Moxxy yelled while throwing a knife at the wall.

They hoped that would be the last of him for the night and got on with cooking.

"Does Blitzo do this a lot, or is it just 'cause of me?" Coco asked, helping Milly set the table.

"Oh~ It actually happens all the time," Milly dismissed, waving her hand and chuckling. "You actually get pretty used to it! Kind of like having a nosey neighbor. Moxx just doesn't like it."

"Because I don't need to see him in our private lives," Moxxy said, taking out a pot roast and a plate of corn bread from the kitchen. "He already miss-manages our time, squanders our money and sends on ridiculous assignments. Not to mention now we have to take care of a human! I don't want that seeping into the only time I have for myself."

"And you micro manage everything in the office," Blitzo said pleasantly, sitting at the head of the table and folding a napkin neatly into his lap. "But! You do make a mean low sodium pot roast!"

It took a moment of everyone blinking to process Blitzo was back.

"How does he keep doing that?" Coco asked Milly carefully.

"I don't know…" Milly said.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Dinner." Moxxy said, carefully putting down the pot roast and glaring over at Blitzo. He was mentally counting down from 100 and trying not to scream again.

"oh, relax!" Blitzo said, holding out his jacket and taking out the book (which really needs its own name) and tossing it over to Coco. "I just came here to make sure Coco had her book with her. Gotta keep that little cursed-possession deal together. Now! Why don't we talk about our little "Back to the Living World" project and-"

"Get out!" Moxxy shouted.

"I actually would like to have that conversation though," Coco pointed out.

"How about tomorrow?" Milly said, looking over at Blitzo. "Over coffee?"

"FINE!" Blitzo made an exaggerated show of getting up and looking offended. "But I'm taking this corn bread!"

"You will leave my corn bread right there!" Moxxy threatened.

"Taking it for emotional abuse!" Blitzo shouted as he walked out and slammed the door.

"UGH!" Moxxy sat down and slammed his head on the table. "The only ones being emotionally abused are us…"

Dinner was, thank God, more pleasant after that. And when everything was cleaned up, everyone kind of hung out in the living room and did nearly nothing. Coco browsed through their books, Milly played on her phone, Moxxy looked like he was writing something in a music score.

"You wanna have the first bath, Coco?" Milly asked, looking over her phone at her. "We can wait if you wanna wash up!"

"Can I?" Coco asked excited. "It's been awhile. I feel really sweaty…"

"You also smell pretty bad," Moxxy called out, chuckling a little. "Maybe think about investing in some deodorant?"

"Hardy har har," Coco false mocked. "I don't see a perfume of trash laying around the office."

"But it's helped her pass as a demon!" Milly said, noting how most demons sort of nothing her.

"That's not a good thing," Coco said, looking really uneasy about that. "And I don't like looking and smelling like trash all the time…"

"Well, the makeup is a good basic cover," Moxxy said, looking over his music score. "We'll work on getting rid of that human smell some other time."

"Go ahead!" Milly stood up and pushed Coco towards the bathroom. "Get washed up! Take your time! We can talk later!"

'They wanna be alone,' Coco caught the hint quick and grinned. 'Well, I can take a pretty good long shower now.'

Coco walked in and turned on the lights, taking in M'n'Ms small bathroom. Everything was checkered black and white with splashes of red here and there. But it had everything you need, including towels, soaps and hair stuffs.

So Coco just started by taking off the horns headband and taking of the jacket she borrowed from Moxxy. She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and checked the curse mark. Nothing seemed to change drastically, it was still there and still demonic.

"Wish you would wash away," she complained while walking over to the shower. "I wonder if the water here can be hot and cold or if it's always just hot as-"

Before the pun could be finished, Coco saw behind the curtain Blitzo was sitting in the bathtub. He was, THANK THE LORD, fully clothed, smiling and holding a rubber ducky.

"Lookin' for a bath friend?" Blitzo asked, squeaking the duck.

Milly and Moxxy's make-out session was interrupted by sudden violent screaming coming from the bathroom.

"Did you remember to flush the toilet?" Milly asked Moxxy.

"Yes," Moxxy said, also thinking. "Did we leave our, uh, Honeymoon presents in there?"

"Hmmm?"

They then got their answer with Coco throwing open the door and kicking Blitzo out of the bathroom.

"GET OUT!" Coco shouted after Blitzo, throwing a shoe at him as left. "I need one place! ONE PLACE! For some goddamned privacy!"  
"Now now! There's no need to so violent!" Blitzo got hit in the face with a shoe. "OW! Okay! I get it! You're sensitive about your body! I can-"

"THERE ARE BOUNDARIES!" Coco shouted, hiding behind the door and then looking over at Milly and Moxxy. "Oh, Blitzo is back."

"Get out of my bathroom!" Moxxy said, then stopped. "Oh wait, you're already out…. Just leave!"

"I'm going!" Blitzo said, starting to quickly lean out. "Geez! Didn't know you guys were so body negative!"

He finally left and everyone was finally able to get on with their nights. Milly and Moxxy helped Coco set up the couch to sleep on and started to get ready for bed.

"Just call us if you need anything," Milly said nicely while walking to the bedroom.

"Go to sleep," was Moxxy's only comment.

"No problem~" Coco yawned, feeling pretty tired from Blitzo's constant intrusions. "Good night~"

With the lights all turned out and the sky actually dark, it was easy for the living room to seem pretty creepy. So Coco kept the binds up and slept on the outer side of the couch so she was facing the window, the faint red highlights being more comforting than absolute darkness like the "unSpace". She kept the book next to her on the floor and laid back, getting comfortable and trying to forget she's in Hell.

'Okay, so we're consciously trying to fall asleep now.' Coco tried relaxing, but realized she couldn't figure out how to relax her brain enough to sleep yet. 'So what? Should I… count sheep? Hmm, how about I count everything that's freaked me out today? There's more of those.'

She counted off every creepy demon she saw, every threat hurled at her by either Luna or some other demon, a bunch of smells that were generally disturbing. And you know what? It was working! She was lulling herself by listing off things that terrified her!

It was just as she was starting to feel herself dip into sleep that her eyes jolted open and focused out of the window. From where she was laying, she saw… Blitzo. Only, his outline and not any details of his face which was even creepier.

His eyes were glowing red, and when he saw Coco recognized he was there, he smiled and waved. But his teeth were also bright red and it was definitely the most traumatizing thing to see before bed.

"Moxx!" Coco yelled, still staring at the Blitzo outline and starting to hide under the covers. "I can't sleep."

"Why not now!?" Moxxy groaned, opening the door in anguish and looking over at Coco.

"Blitzo is at the window again…" Coco slightly whimpered and pointed over at him.

Moxxy looked over at the window and then just let out a long, anguished groan. Why was this still happening? Can't their night just be over?

He walked over to the window, took over both hands on the curtains and glared at Blitzo through the window.

"GO HOME!" Moxxy yelled as he shut the curtains, then gave a smile at Coco and tried to tell himself it was all over. "Good night!"

It took a really, really long time for Coco to fall asleep that night.

**The next day, at IMP -**

The biggest thing Coco couldn't seem to stop doing was looking over at the scale of sin. She kept catching herself in the mirror and looking over, wondering if anything has changed or if she could actually figure out how to measure and weigh her soul. It was becoming a bit of a problem because she would stop for a good five minutes just to stare at herself in the mirror while doing work.

"If you're not fixing that shitty job of an eyeliner work then quit staring at yourself," Luna said, rolling her eyes. This was just annoying her since Coco kept stopping and starting things to look at the mirror. It was like she was rebooting her brain every 20 minutes. "You're cutting traffic."

"Oh!" Coco blushed and chuckled embarrassedly for a bit before walking back to her desk. "Yeah, uh, aren't you ever curious about that? I mean, it's kind of-"

"No." Luna stopped her right there, pulling out her phone and scrolling through something while not taking Coco seriously. "I don't care. Only people with no lives actually care about shit like that. Stop fucking worrying about how a stupid scale ranks you and get on with your life."

"… But, it's kind of…" Coco tried to defend herself for no reason. "I mean, I guess it doesn't make sense here in Hell but… On Earth, it would be interesting to-"

"And what would humans do even they had it?" Luna questioned while giving rolling her hand, still not interested. "They'd just fuck around about how they should be the "most holiest" spend fuck all time doing shit that wasn't important, act like they're "saved" or "saviors" and then kill each other over nothing. It's stupid and useless unless you like thinking about yourself for too long."

"… That… makes a lot of sense." Coco started feeling way too self conscious after that.

'Am I really that self-absorbed…?'

Milly and Moxxy were doing something while Blitzo was out of the office, so Luna and Coco had a lot uncomfortable silence going on. The telephone rang, freaking Coco out, and Luna answered it calmly like she didn't care.

"Hello. IMP. This Luna. Who do you need dead now?" Luna said in a blatant monotone.

"Is that how we answer the phones?" Coco asked, peeping out from under her desk where she hid.

"It's just Stollas," Luna said irritated, it obviously didn't seem like she liked the guy. "He wants Blitzo, but he's not in his office."

"Stollas?" Coco said, getting up a little and looking up, trying to remember where she's heard that before. "Where've I heard that? Stollas? Stollas…"

"Remember when you got kidnapped? The turf war shit?" Luna started, about to hang up the phone. "He's just some big asshole who-"

'The book!" Coco remembered at the back of the book, someone named Stollas used to own it! 'His name's in the book! He must know something about it!'

The same quick psychotic energy that gives her terribly good ideas came over and Coco decided to act as quickly as possible for her own motives.

"I'll take the call!" Coco shouted, standing up and starting to run over to the office excitedly. "Send it over! I'll leave Blitzo a message!"

Luna sat there for a second and contemplated this. While she didn't really care, she knew that after talking to Stollas, Blitzo is… Oh well. It should be interesting.

"Call for you!" Luna called over, pressing a button and transferring the call over to Blitzos' office.

A light came up on Blitzos' desk phone and Coco lunged for it. It was a little awkward at first to try and sit at Blitzo's desk since it was so big and tall, covered with colorful papers and toys, but she felt comfortable enough and took the phone call.

"Hello!" Coco started, trying to calm down her excitement as she sat up and awkwardly tried to make the same both threatening and professional answer Luna gave. "This uh! I'm with, we are IMP! We we we uh, kill people with smiles! How are you today?"

'Totally nailed it,' Coco tried to keep calm. 'Did I say we kill while smiling or kill people who smile? I don't know. Stop sweating so much.'

"Hello~~?" A strangely royal-is sounding voice that reminded her of South London accent said from he other side. "I'm trying to speak with Blitzo, the owner of this establishment."

"Uh, yes!" Coco called out, standing up now. It felt like she had to pretend to be more respectful while talking to him. "He uh, is out. Working! Working with… business stuff. I'm uh, his assistant. Can I take a message?"

"Oh really~? Blitzo has an assistant. Very well, I guess I can leave a notice with you. Can you keep everything confidential?"  
"Yes sir!" Coco picked up a random pen and flipped a piece of paper over to write down his requests. "I'll make sure he gets it!"

'Let's see if this guy might have anything on this book,' Coco thought, getting ready to jot everything down. 'And later I can look up and see what info we have on this guy! If I can figure out more on this book, then I can figure out how to get back home and lift this crazy curse!'

Coco began by listening carefully, writing everything down calmly. But, the more she listened, the more…. Graphic it became. Soon, Coco wasn't sure if she was writing down notes, a bad BDSM novel or a long death threat with how scary it was becoming. After about five minutes (oh God, how long is this going to go?) Coco just stopped writing and started feeling her mind and soul collapse into a kind of scared and timid state. He kept on like this and she was starting feel very scared for Blitzo for how much… creative content this man was speaking of.

"Do you have everything, dear?" Stollas checked.

"… Uh huh." Coco managed to say. She had a long, vacant look in her eyes as she looked out into nothing but felt a sort of hollow scream in the back of her head.

"Very good! Make sure he had the message by the end of the day!" Stollas said, about to hang up now. "Ta ta! I'll be sure to drop by sometime."

"… Please never do." Coco said after he hung up.

She kept staring vacantly for a minute as her psych had absorbed Stollas' words. Blitzo walked in a minute later to see Coco standing there and gave her a quizzical look.

"Why aren't you at your desk?" Blitzo asked, noticing the phone in her hand. "Huh? Did you answer the phone? Who was-"

Blitzo was stopped by Coco quickly walking over and just hugging him. Just strongly clinging to him like she was trying to keep him from learning about what she had just had go through her head. It was a strange mix of protective feelings along with fear and 'oh God what did I just hear?'.

"Please don't leave and do the things I wrote down on your desk," Coco said quietly, now squeezing tighter for fear of everything she heard. "Please don't even read it…"  
"Aw~~~~!" Blitzo adored this look and hugged his tail around her, finding it pathetically cute. "Did you get traumatized after listening to Stollas on the phone?"

"…" Coco only nodded, knowing it was probably already bad enough she answered it without his permission.

"Yeah. That was too soon for you." Blitzo patted her head and smiled, actually kind of glad someone cared enough to be scared for him. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Was that sex stuff or death stuff?" Coco asked, really needing that cleared up.

"There isn't a difference here."

"…" She just hugged tighter. "Please don't do sex stuff with him…"

"Not planning to, Sweetie~" He patted her head again, kind of enjoying this attention.

"Please don't let him in the office…"

"Not while you're around." Blitzo absolutely promised.

**\- Later that night - **

Coco went over to M'n'Ms later that night because she and Blitzo were working on files of other cases. Blitzo dropped her off later at the doorstep and Coco walked in, happy to see the door was unlocked.

'Hmm,' Coco walked in humming, noticing the lights were on so they were home but it didn't look like they were around. 'It's quiet. Maybe they're napping?'

She noticed that there was a record on the HiFi system but it was not playing and a few books were on the floor. But she also saw they had some laundry laid out on the floor like it was all being folded. It was still a little warm, so it meant they had only stopped maybe 10 or 15 minutes ago. So, as a nice thing, Coco finished folding it all for them and put it in the basket to take it to their bedroom.

She started by knocking on the door but then began to open it too soon.

"Mill! Moxx!" Coco called out smiling, opening the door. "I'm home! I finished folding your laundry for y- OH MY SWEET CHARIOT!"

-20 minutes later-

It's really hard to explain the images Coco just saw, and easier to explain that she was quietly sitting in the bathroom and trying to forget what she just saw.

"Sweetie you should really wait till after you knock to open the door," Milly said, patting Cocos' back as she was sitting on the toilet.

"We only have so much privacy," Moxxy said, he was turned away from Coco because he was too embarrassed to look her in the eyes for awhile. "Can you not understand the idea of a shut door?"

"How was I supposed to know!" Coco cried, hiding her head in her hands. "You could have put a sock on the door…"

The images she saw in that room were on the level of the sounds Stollas made over the phone. Ones that made her kind of question how old she was and her sexual maturity at this point.

Yeah. Coco couldn't live there anymore…

**-The next night-**

"Are you sure you're okay sleepin' here tonight?" Milly asked Coco worried. "I mean, we did this whole thing 'cause you didn't think the office was safe enough to sleep at."

Coco sat on the office couch in the back office with a bag of sleeping supplies, toiletries and some clothes from Moxxy. After last night, in order to pacify her remaining relationship with Moxxy and her own sanity, Coco decided to try sleeping at the office for one night.

"It's cool!" Coco said cheerfully, actually kind of excited about this. "It'll be like camping!"

"How is spending the night at the place you work all day at camping?" Moxxy asked, confused by this allusion.

"Mmmm, you're right." Coco nodded, amending her statement. "It'll be like overtime!"  
"You're not getting paid extra!" Moxxy said, still pretty sure she didn't understand any of this. "Are you sure you're an adult?"

"You got everything you need?" Milly asked. "You want us to bring you anything?"

"If you can bring me a book tomorrow, that'd be nice!" Coco said cheerfully. "But I'll be fine! Blitzo said he'll lock the door and nobody will come in here."

"You've got the shot gun still, right?" Moxxy checked.

"Oh yeah." Coco nodded, now feeling very happy to have a loaded gun in the closet. "I've got stuff. If the Hell Burn doesn't kill them, the buckshot will."

"That's the spirit!" Milly cheered.

Moxxy was a little worried how Coco was now suddenly okay with murder after seeing two people in the middle of sex. Either her morality was breaking down slowly, or her sanity. It didn't matter too much to him, but it was starting to weigh on his own psyche.

"Are you sure you're really okay with this?" Moxxy asked, showing some humanity. "I mean, you were really opposed to self protection a few days ago. And the office isn't… well, there's lots of obvious murder weapons around. Can you really sleep here like that?"

"Well," Coco looked away, also showing how nervous this made her. But she shook her head and tried to act mature. "It is a little… a lot terrifying actually. But, if I'm gonna be here in Hell… for a while. I-I should learn how to live a little independently from you guys. I mean, Luna's right! I can't act like I don't know anything and then expect people to take care of me!"

"Luna said that?" Milly looked surprised.

"That's surprisingly mature and well thought out for her," Moxxy looked just as confused.

"Well, she didn't say it exactly like that," Coco was obviously giving Luna the benefit of the doubt. "But it's true, I'm kind of relying on you all too much. I'm a grown woman! I've lived away from my family for over 5 years now already, so I should be able to handle some forced relocation on my own! I've got friends, a roof over my head and I've got an actual job! I paid most of my own bills in Edinburgh and I can live in a closet here in Hell!"

"That's a good way of putting it," Moxxy grinned sarcastically. "Set a really low bar for yourself there. Our standards for humans will be a lot more manageable that way."

Coco just glared at Moxxy for a minute before Blitzo came inside. Blitzo had been taking care of a few things to make Coco more comfortable; namely setting up a serious of booby traps around the building to catch anyone who might even attempt to walk down the street near IMP. He also made sure the fire alarm, sprinklers and everything electrical was working and set it up so no one would guess a human was sleeping here tonight.

"Alright," Blitzo said, looking very cautious as he dropped a bag full of food on the floor and looked around carefully. "I made sure you have enough supplies to last a week, JUST IN CASE! We don't want you feeling unprepared! I have our emergency phone here, a list of emergency numbers and an emergency baseball bat right next to the door here."

"Why would she need an emergency baseball bat?" Moxxy asked.

"You never know when you'll need an emergency baseball bat," Blitzo reasoned.

"I actually agree with that," Coco said while looking at Milly who nodded.

"You know the rules?" Blitzo asked, pointing at Coco.

"Don't set the office on fire?" Coco guessed because what rules?

"I think he means what's in the employee handbook," Milly offered.

"Oh," Coco remembered she hasn't read a word of that thing because who actually reads office guides? "… Yes?"

"Good!" Blitzo said cheerfully, patting Coco on the head and starting to head out. "Well! I'm gonna call it a night! Don't do anything I wouldn't do in here!"

"That doesn't really restrict a lot," Moxxy said, starting to walk out and glaring over at Blitzo. "And don't come over to our house tonight!"  
"Bye, Honey!" Milly sang, waving as she left. "See you first thing in the morning!"  
"Bye guys!" Coco said cheerfully.

When Coco heard the front door lock and shut, she listened to the sound of nothing inside the office and found slightly… more disturbing.

"This was a terrible idea, wasn't it?" She asked her moral compass which seemed to stay seated at Y. "I am such an idiot…"

Trying to avoid the same pattern that happened the first night, Coco got over her intimidation first by cleaning the entire office. Then, because she felt it was weird, she moved the piano out of the weapons room and into the employee living space where she was sleeping. She made a snack, played a couple of songs, only cried a little bit, and finally figured it was time to sleep on the pull out bunk.

She laid the bunk out inside the room, barricaded the door with a table and chairs, set a shoelace booby trap down, and then made her bed. To make the dark room seem less imposing, she took out a flashlight and put it inside a vase to make a big, glowing blue nightlight. Setting the book down beside the bed, Coco laid back and again, tried to consciously fall asleep by counting backwards from 100.

Okay, this wasn't so bad…. She actually might… fall…. asleep….

She had fallen asleep, had been dreaming about a library, but then was rudely woken up by the sound of… purring?

"?Quien dejó entrar al gato en mi cuarto?" Coco started, sitting up a little and ready to bitch at her roommates in either English or Spanish while rubbing her eyes. "!Vete! I love you but…"

When she opened her eyes, the blue haze of nightlight highlighted how Blitzo was sitting over her, one the bunk, and smiling and purring…. Actually purring.

"What'cha dreamin' about?" He asked, cheekily like a child and like this wasn't an invasion of both privacy and security.

"…" Coco just continued to stare at him, knowing she will be able to sleep tonight or probably any other night in this office ever again.

'I need my own space…'

**The next day - **

Coco was determined to find an apartment now. Or a housing complex. Or a motel. Or an abandoned building she could squat at. Literally, anywhere she could have enough privacy and space from IMP, specifically from Blitzo.

So other than old recites she was filing, Coco had piles of apartment adds, housing classified and a map of Hells' bus routes. She was pretty surprised to see how well planned out the commuter and residence areas all of Hell is, but it's super convenient she knows how to look for this stuff!

"Hon," Milly said, looking at Coco who was studiously searching for an affordable place to live and not get murdered in. "This is a bad idea."  
"This is a great idea," Coco corrected, starting to look more and more intense as she cross referenced housing options with articles of murder, drug lords, turf wars and proximity to a school. "I'm doing a great job! I know how to research, I will be out of here by the end of the week!"  
"Yeah, we meant the idea of living on your own is a terrible idea," Moxxy interrupted her crazy by pulling a newspaper out of her hands. "Have you lost your mind! You can't live on your own! You'll be found out as a human in under an hour and then kidnapped in the next twenty minutes."

"Oh ye of little faith," Coco mocked, now sorting through other documents and articles. "Well, if I don't get some personal space here, I'm just going to drive myself crazy and I'd like to have some of my sanity left to bring back to Earth."

"Why?" Blitzo asked, leaning against the door of his office and drinking his second cup of coffee Coco made. "Who needs the stuff! Sanity just holds you back from expressing yourself in the most original way possible!"  
"Blitzo, I already saw the pictures of your last murder and trust me." Coco looked over at Blitzo with very little patience. He kept her up all night by appearing randomly throughout the office just "to check in" and made it so she couldn't sleep at all again. "I don't need your expressions in my living area…"

"And now you see why I hate it when he bothers us at home," Moxxy commiserated.

Coco only hummed in agreement as she went back to looking for livable space. It was just too bad that… Well, Hell is unlivable. For humans at least. If the basics of crime, food desserts, turf wars and drugs weren't enough; the only "safe" enclosed communities were way out of her price range! She doesn't even have a bank account, let alone enough for a security deposit!

'Is a place that isn't surrounded by polluted water and murderous assholes too much to ask for?!' Coco mentally screamed, finally putting down the papers and banging her head against the desk. 'That's it. I'm just gonna be homeless bum…'

"Hey, tiny freak." Luna called, experimenting with a few new pet names for Coco. "Come over here."  
"Why?" Coco asked, pulling her head up and giving Luna a timid expression. "Are you gonna make me do your work again for you?"  
"No," Luna growled out under her breath before turning her computer monitor for Coco to look at. "I found this going around the past few days, figured it looked like something you wouldn't screw up."

"Huh?"

Coco stood up and walked over to Lunas' desk. There, Luna played a video of a young… girl.

"Another human!" Coco said excited. "In Hell!"

"Look close," Luna said boredly. "She's actually just a fancy demon."

"But she looks so cute," Coco said under her breath, entranced by the blond haired girl with roses cheeks and dark eyes.

"What? I'm not cute enough for you?"

"…" Coco stayed silent and watched this strange interview with an ultra skinny demon who looked like a woman from the 50s. "Why did you wanna show me this?"

"Keep watching," Luna instructed, also setting down the topic but planning on making her pay for it later.

And they did. It looked like she was talking about some kind of social benefits project, but then it became a musical. A really really really good and entertaining musical. About… A hotel for redemption! A place actually called the Happy Hotel!

"Is this for real?" Coco asked, leaning in closer and becoming more and more excited. "Is she really serious?"

"Don't lean in so close the the monitor, Honey," Blitzo said, pulling Coco away from the screen. "It'll burn out your eyes and make you retarded."

"Is she really doing this!" Coco asked, looking more and more excited. "This is an actual thing!"

"Well," Luna said, turning the monitor back and looking back. "They said they already have a building and some people already living there. So I guess so."

"Can you search it?" Coco asked, looking at Luna excitedly. "The Happy Hotel! See how much it costs and everything!"

Everyone in the office seemed to stop for a minute and look at Coco. They were all a little too nervous about how excited Coco was getting. Nervous about an emotional let down and.. a little nervous about her trying to live on her own.

"Now hold on a minute!" Blitzo was the first one to react and be over protective. "We don't know the first thing about this place!"  
"Which is why we're trying to find out," Coco said cheerfully, taking the keyboard and searching on her own.

"You don't know if it's actually real," Moxxy reasoned, walking up to Coco and looking over at the monitor. "It could just be a giant scam! You don't know if you can trust this yet!"  
"That's why we're looking." Coco continued to search.

"What if it's full of murders!" Milly objected.

"This office is full of murders." Coco pointed out.

"…" All three of them couldn't really argue with that.

While the Happy Hotel didn't seem to have a website, the more Coco looked the more information she found. Other than pages listing its address to have it bombed or shot up, it seemed to have more and more security than any place else. It was right outside of IMP City in the center of the Pentagram. It was near a stretch of actual forest and garden land, along with a river! There were sidewalks, a street, a bus line nearby, a small downtown area.

And there was a picture of the owner. Of a girl with, who it didn't seem to have much information on her, was just named as… Charlie.

"… That looks actually quiet pleasant," Coco said, staring at Charlies' picture and smiling.

Who knew being a homeless bum could lead you towards a path of redemption?


	8. The Hazbin Hotel is not so Happy

All of the office of IMP decided to accompany Coco to Pentagram City and check out the Happy Hotel. While Coco was not against this, she was a little confused by the directions. Because in real life, the Hotel… looked not at all like a hotel.

"This looks like an illegal sweat shop," Coco said while actually sweating.

It was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade as Coco had discovered Hell has incredibly hot

and humid weather. She was looking up at what was supposed to be the Happy Hotel but was instead advertised as the Hazbin Hotel.

"Did they change the name?"

"Not to my info," Blitzo said, same smile on as he also looked up at the towering building and sign before looking back down okay. "Okay! So how about we check out the check in?"

"Terrible pun, sir," Moxxy responded.

"Wait, are we sure this is right!?" Coco asked, incredibly uncomfortable while looking at the building that was still far too sketchy to be hopeful. "Like, is this the right address? Is this the right the hotel? Is this safe? Is it… legal? Like, closest version of legal that exists in Hell?"

While the Happy Hotel had been the prominent thought and hope in Cocos' mind since yesterday, actually standing in front of it was making her nervous. It was like standing in front of the airport before your plane takes off. You're not sure exactly what you're doing and going through security and walking through the giant building seemed more uncomfortable than actually getting on the place.

The biggest thing that seemed to stop her was the fact that the hotel… did not look like a hotel. It was a huge, multi-story building that seemed to have more styles and dimensions of other buildings than one set design. The outside of the hotel looked more like an old abandoned factory had been renovated into a department store, and after that failed they did some quick changes to make it into apartments-turned a hotel. There were large, multi-colored windows like old glass factories that looked like they let in a lot of light and kept out heat. The hotel was surrounded by shrubs and trees, all of which looked ominous and shifty but provided a fair amount of shade and cooling.

And there was… an ominous giant fucking hole in the ground about half a mile away from the front that looked like it went down to the core of whatever is under hell. It also ruined the semi-pleasant walkway and served as a very questionable thing as: Why the fuck is there a giant crater on the front lawn?

So it wasn't that the place look unpleasant, just that… it looked sketch as shit.

'It doesn't even look like a hostel,' Coco remembered her short stint working at a youth hostel in Europe and tried to get rid of the ill feelings about the Hazbin Hotel. If this is what it was, she'd have to accept it, and it accept it right now. 'Anything's better than sleeping in the office again. Or standing outside here in Hell for another minute…'

Other than the heat, Hell's smell was like rotting bodies, sweat, old food and shit mixed together. Enough to make you become sick by just breathing it. The air was heavy like smog and it was oppressively hot. Coco had started sweating after two minutes of standing outside and she could already feel her lungs starting to have trouble.

"Think you need some air conditioning, Coco." Milly said, patting Cocos' shoulder and checking to see if she was alright. She noticed how Coco was starting to look a little sick and made a concerned face, turning to the others. "She's not used being in the outside for this long; we should take her in somewhere quick."

"She looks like she's gonna hurl," Luna commented, momentarily looking up from her phone and raising an eyebrow at Coco. "How are you gonna make it on your own if just stepping outside kills you?"

"I didn't know it was this bad…" Coco covered her mouth and coughed for a moment. She took a mental note to get a face mask and a parasol or something to keep the burning red sky off of her skin, actually glad to be sweating under the long jacket Blizto lent her.

"Now you know why we all dress up like this," Blitzo said, demonstrating his fashion and using his tail to pull Coco along towards the hotel. "Well, let's just take a look in here for a moment! If this place looks legit, then we can negotiate and come up with a plan! If not, then we can fuck around and waste more of our paid office hours."

"Can we please focus on housing the human for an hour, sir?" Moxxy complained, looking lightly worried about how Coco was definitely not suited to staying outside in the day-time for very long. "If she even lives that long."

"Thanks for the moral support, Mox," Coco managed to quip briskly as the walked up the short steps to the front door. She sipped her forehead off with her sleeve and then held it there to block off the red glare from her face. "As long as I can live inside somewhere, I think I can work on ways of going outside alone later…"

With the notion of her minimum standards for comfort in mind, the five of them walked up as Blitzo rang the door bell and waited for somebody to answer it. Only, nobody was coming. Which was weird because there were a set of double doors with church-like stained glass as decoration. They were pretty sure someone was supposed to answer it.

Blitzo looked confused and proceeded to ring it an excessive amount of times before Moxxy started knocking on it quickly. All of them looked in different amounts of distress as none of them could figure out why nobody was answering.

"Maybe it's abandoned?" Coco questioned, starting to feel herself pant a little from the heavy, humid air.

"It doesn't look like it," Milly said, looking up at the upper levels of the hotel and determining that there was definitely something living in there.

"Maybe they went out for some coffee?" Moxxy proposed, scratching his chin a little.

"Really? The whole hotel all went out for coffee at the same time?" Blitzo sarcastically questioned while rolling his eyes. "Are you really that fucking stupid."

"Well at least I'm trying!" Moxxy shouted, going ahead and knocking on the door aggressively again while glaring at it. "Grr. What is taking them so long!?"

"Is it even open?" Coco asked again, panting a little heavier and starting to lean over from the heat and pressure. "I mean, aren't hotels supposed to have unlocked doors during operating hours? Maybe… we should… just… sit down and-"

"Sweetie, if you sit down you might just have a heart attack," Milly warned, then looking up at the others in a panic. "We really should go inside somewhere now! Either here or somewhere else, she ain't gonna last out here much long-"

Entirely irritated by this and also wanting some AC, Luna just walked over and actually kicked open the front door with one leg. Luckily not breaking anything, the door swung open to the main lobby that was dark and had a pleasant breeze inside.

Everyone stopped and stared over at Luna, all a little intimidated by the random act of property destruction that they were now witnesses of.

"What?" Luna looked over and rolled her eyes, putting her hand on her hip and giving a minor glare. "You said you wanted in, so I got us in!"

"We need to work on our communication skills, Luna." Blitzo said diplomatically, holding up his hands in a prayer like manner before letting out a breath and smiling like he was trying to give constructive advice but being very timid while doing so. "It seems you don't… Take directions in a positive manner."

"You need to work on her anger management skills first," Moxxy complained, now patting Cocos' back and leading her inside. "But, at least we've got some shelter for the human now. Can we please continue this stupid endeavor to house the human before she dies on us?"

"Good plan, sweetie," Milly said, walking inside with an upbeat attitude and cheery smile. "This is gonna be great! Aren't you excited, Coco?"

"I'm gonna barf…" Coco told herself while trying to get over the nerves and possible cancer she just contracted from the air.

While tense and nervous while walking inside, most of those tremors disappeared once she felt the cool, clean air of inside hotel. She stood still for a moment and took in a deep breath, enjoying the fact that this actually was the most clean air she's smelt since landing here.

When she stood up straight again and looked around, Coco noticed that the lighting in the place was off. No, literally. All of the lights were off. Which was strange for a hotel but was also kind of pleasant, all of the red lights from Hells' over saturated sky were completely dulled out and instead just had sharp, vibrant colors from the stained glass flooding the area. There were lots of patterns of apples and other motifs that reminded her of church windows, but all of the were actually strangely pleasant. The floors were made of dark hard wood that creaked underfoot, the walls were plastered with deep colored fine wallpaper that reminded her of old southern homes. And the few pieces of furniture she saw around was a mixture of classic style and some new pieces that were put in for function.

All and all… it was pretty abandoned. Yep. Pretty and abandoned.

"Where is everybody?" Coco asked, looking around and still seeing no signs of… afterlife.

"Maybe they all died?" Blitzo suggested before Coco stomped on his tail. "OW! Okay! That was a dumb joke!"

"How is dying a joke?" Coco asked irritated.

"You're just not nuanced enough for it," Blitzo waved off.

"There's gotta be somebody around," Moxxy said, walking in farther and looking around. "This place is too nice to just leave."

"You call this nice?" Luna said, looking at a really nice, creepy oil painting and some cobwebs. "Looks like some spoiled brat set up a play castle and has her nanny clean up when she's taking a nap."

"Is that a metaphor or a fact?" Milly wondered aloud, also looking around and seeing strange signs of both nice and probably contaminated.

"Both?" Blitzo suggested, then turned to look at Coco again. "Figure this place might be good if there's people, probably haunted if there's not. You wanna burn this place down in the mean time?"

"If demons live here, isn't it already haunted?" Coco said, pointing out his logistical errors while looking around.

"Ugh, you and your semantics!" Blitzo joyfully complained and walked ahead. "You ruin all of the fun."

"Good," Coco stated, following behind and feeling more moral with her increasing health stamina. "You're a murderer. You deserve no fun."

"You sound like my kindergarten teacher," Blitzo bickered, opening up a door and stopping.

Everyone stopped and looked at Blitzo, then all went over and looked over his shoulder at the scene in front.

"This place looks like shit!" Shouted a tall, grey-toned girl with annoyingly long white hair wearing an eye patch. She looked like she was made of sharp edges as she yelled and bared sharp teeth at an assortment of stranger looking demons in the room. "If you all could fucking learn how to pick up after yourselves then this hotel wouldn't be falling apart half of the time! We're trying to run a business here! Not keep some kind of, garbage squaters' room cleaning business!"

"This place is a piece of shit," a sort of weird cat-wolf-bird mixed demon with long eye brows said ambivantely, like he had pointed out something obvious and obviously didn't care. He emphasized this by taking a drag from an unlabeled bottle while not breaking eye contact.

"You. Shut. Up." The same girl hissed, pointing at him with a sharp warning murder finger. "And learn how to keep your fucking bottles from falling over! It's a fire hazard!"

"Hell's a fire hazard, baby," said a tall, pink and white demon that was strangely… fluffy. They were rolling their eyes all at once while leaning back against a support beam with a wiggle and crossing all four of their arms as well. "Maybe 'ya outta figure out a way to keep this piece of shit more presentable. You know, for "business" relations anyway, hehe~"

"Oh. I already know the best way to do that…" She said, her head turning in a strange mechanical tilt as she held up a threatening claw, already getting ready to threaten to or actually tear off a set of the other demons' limbs. "Why don't we kick out the most annoying, trashiest piece of shit here and watch this place actually become a rehabilitation center! I swear to God you overgrown dick piece, if I see you drag in another disgusting "work related" incident into my workplace, I will personally tear you apart and-!-"

"N-Now now, Vaggie!" Popped out the smaller, blond demon that Coco had seen on the computer last night! Even though she looked panicked stricken and tense, her cheeks were still rosy and she still had a little bounce to her movements. "Leeet's not get too "intense" here, haha! I-I'm sure everyone can understand our problems, a-and all we need to do is set down some basic house keeping rules to make this place more livable!"

"Hey, we already got a house keeper," the spider-like one said, gesturing with one of their hands behind them to apparently someone else. "How's this mess our problem?"

"IT IS A BIG PROBLEM!" Said a loud… tiny… pink… cyclops… thing. The thing was small, cute, and possibly more demonic than her appearance let on. "Do you know how many germs are running around in here? Every minute. A second. Microcosms of little disgusting creatures are running all around here, eating everything in sight and turning this echoing chamber of Hell into a disgusting mosh pit! So tiny. So disgusting…"

"That's not a very nice way to talk about your family, pipsqueak," the spider said with a giggle and smirking.

Everyone was still standing a safe distance away while watching this strange performance It was then everyone realized why they hadn't seen anyone yet: Everyone was here and yelling at each other.

"Bright side," Moxxy whispered, starting in a little timid but willing to sell this place to her. "Sound proofing walls and doors."

"Down side," Coco continued, watching this mess while internally screaming because there are more demons here than she's comfortable. Namely, more than one. "Everyone obviously hates each other and wants to murder one another…."

"Common roommate situation," Milly defended, also trying to be diplomatic. "At least they don't have any weapons!"

"That we know of," Luna commented, looking on interestedly to see who would go at whom's neck first. "You know, this place does seem so "Happy" to me."

"Shhhhh!" Blitzo swatted at the others behind him and he leaned in intensely, taking in every moment of this. "The drama's starting again!"

It wasn't long before the show continued.

"You can take your snobby ass, lip treatment attitude and shove it up your ass with the rest of the shit I don't care about!" The girl with long hair yelled at the tall white and pinked stripped demon. She seemed to be getting more and intense as this debate went on. "It's bad enough with them here, but I don't need YOU brining down the hotel to an even lower level! This isn't some kind of brothel you get to run in and out of!"

"Oh, really sweet cheeks?" The tall one said, leaning down and crossing their arms over their fluffy chest and grinning. Winking their one black eye while rolling the other. "Because, last time I checked, I was your only client! AND! Your most high profile one at that. So maybe ya outta think about treating your guests with a little more class~"

"Reeeaaaaaaalllly," she said sarcastically, the bow on top of her head becoming pointer. "Because, last time I checked, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE US A FUCKING LAUGHING STOCK ALL OVER HELL!"

"Hey hey hey!" Charlie said, reinserting herself between the two of them to try to force this to a stop! "Now listen! We are not going to fight inside the hotel! This place is a safe place for rehabilitating sinners and I need you two to calm your asses down so we can get on with the fucking healing!"

"Wasn't too much the pansys' fault," the cat demon commented, also smirking lightly. "You were already a laughing stock to begin with."

"Husk," Charlie said, her voice tense as she mechanically turned over to the demon with a crazed smile that showed how close she was to losing it. "As an employee of the Happy Hotel, I would advice you not to say or do anything that I will come to regret doing later…"

"Yeah! Listen to her!" The little demon said, bopping over to stand next to Charlie and gesture all around her. "She can't help that this filthy place is falling all around her! Or that we're the laughing stock of the entire Pentagram City because nobody cares or believes in this place!"

"…" One of Charlies' eyes began twitching and she was surprising an urge to strange anything that was pink. "Thank you… for that.. Niffty…"

"Why don't you get lost you oversized hemorrhoid!" The long haired demon said, stepping over Charlie and growling at the little one before glaring at the other two as well. "UGH! Maybe if we didn't have so many INCOMPETENT people here! We'd actually have this hotel up and running like a normal place!"

"And maybe if this place wasn't so fucking boring then you'd actually have more clients," the tall one said, walking a few steps over and dipping their head down and up in one swoop, using one hand to mess with their hair a bit. "I mean, this place is the fucking worst! There's nothing to do, nothing to see, no one to bother. Fuck! I'd shoot myself if I didn't have anything better to do then work!"

"I can arrange that…" The long haired one threatened…

While watching this, Coco started to sink into the feeling that her best option, this hotel, was probably just another terrible thing in Hell. And she was currently wondering how she could sneak out and escape again…

It seemed to be less of a "hotel for sinners just passing through" and more of a rehabilitation center with dealers put directly inside. There was obviously anger management issues, manic personalities, addicts and a lot of violence thrown into the mix. It probably didn't make for a pleasant living situation for anyone at all.

'Am I just doomed to be around people who murder and curse each other for fun?!' Coco seriously wondered, holding up her wrist and looking down at the Moral Compass. 'I'm afraid to ask for any advice right now…'

Charlie had been in the middle of this argument for 20 minutes and she was starting to lose the edge of her nice self. Just as she was about to sit on the cusp of murder, Charlie turned her head and noticed three imps, one werewolf and a strange looking girl-demon standing in the doorway outside of the room.

When Charlie looked over, everyone else seemed to turn and notice something much more interesting near the room. Namely: New people.

"… Did we come at a bad time?" Blitzo asked, feeling awkward he got caught enjoying the fight.

"… Oh dear," Coco said, looking up over at Blitzo. "M-Maybe this was a bad idea…."

After several seconds of uncomfortable silence, Blitzo grinned and straitened his tie to begin selling himself to this complete bunch of lunatics.

"Hello, fellow damned and irredeemable assholes!" Blitzo said overly cheerfully, making Coco squirm even more as he walked over with a wave and the rest of IMP following him. "My name's Blitzo, the owner of I.M.P., maybe you're familiar with some of my work? Business and artist related~"

"Never heard of ya'," the tall white-pink demon said, leaning against a pole and looking on expectantly. Very amused and ready for some entertainment. "What are ya', some kinda clown company?"

"You're one to talk," both Luna and the long haired girl said, rolling their eyes.

"Angle!" Charlie hissed at the tall demon quickly before turning around and flashing her big brown eyes. She seemed to change on a dime and feature a much brighter, more innocent look. "WELCOME! Welcome to the Happy Hotel! Are you all interested in hearing more about our rehabilitation program?"

Coco stood back for a moment and watched at how hopeful and sweet the innocent blond demon looked as she stared up encouragingly at the imps. And immediately felt bad for her because… she was completely wrong.

'Maybe he'll let down gently?' Coco hoped.

"Oh. No no no," Blitzo smiled holding out both hands and then placing one on Charlies' shoulder in a consoling manner. "Not me. This is all stupid and I love my life!"

'I guess that's a version of gentle,' Coco thought slapping her own face and internal groaning. 'Did I really expect anything better…'

Charlies' smile seemed to drop its brightness but remained there, reminding everyone of a broken child. As if on cue, the long haired girl walked up and swatted away Blitzos' hand and stood beside her, giving him and the others a critical look.

"Then who-" the long haired girl started, about to go into a tirade before Blitzo stopped her.

Blitzo held up a finger before taking one step back and reaching for Coco in one fell swoop.

"Here~!" Blitzo pulled over Coco and hugged her to him while smiling at Charlie. "It's this cutie here I'm asking you to lock up and and put a pretty smile on."

At that, all eyes fell on the small tanned girl that the tall imp had brought in. To them, she looked unimpressive and probably not worth mentioning. Coco just stood there uncomfortably as she felt sweat start to drip on the back of her neck.

"Go ahead and introduce yourself, sweetie," Blitzo said, pushing Coco forward like you would push a kid into a pool.

"Ummmm," Coco caught herself before falling forward and stood in front of the two demon girls. It was an overly imposing situation where she both saw and felt everyones' eyes drop on her and judge her. She swore this would have been the single most scariest thing that's ever happened if she hadn't just been kidnapped a few days ago. "H-Hello, I-I'm…. My name's uh Co-Coachella. But call me Coco…"

Not the best introduction but what can you expect when you're surrounded by demons judging your entire existence.

But the only one who didn't seem to be judging Coco was Charlie. Instead, she smiled and stepped over, taking one of her hands into both of hers and giving her a warm introduction.

"Well, hello there!" Charlie said brightly, smiling and showing a row of fanged teeth that seemed to be less threatening when matched with her rose cheeks and grateful smile. "And welcome to the Happy Hotel! My name's Charlie, and I'm here to make your stay in Hell as short and happy as possible!"

While the others in the background seemed to groan and shake their heads, Coco just stood there and smiled. This was the warmest and kindest thing anyone has said to her since she got here! And Charlie just seemed to bounce with enthusiasm and excitement!

'Is she really a demon?' Coco wondered looking at Charlie fondly and starting to flush a little. 'She seems' like a human like me!'

Before Coco could say anything, the small pink demon from before seemed to butt in-between them and focus all of her attention on Coco. It was strange how something that only came up to her hip seemed to overpower and completely unnerve Coco. But maybe that was from the one yellow eye and the two rows of many sharp teeth…

"Hi! I'm Niffty!" She exclaimed excitedly while continuing on with some sort of super examination of Coco. Staring her up and down, examining her nails, ponytail, clothes and overall self. "Wow! You sure do look neat. Are you a neat person? I bet you're pretty neat. You seem interesting. Oh! Look at you! You still have all of your human features! Wow!"

As Niffty took a full body examination of the new girl, Coco sort of felt… frozen with fear. It's been awhile since she's been surrounded by… so many demons. And Niffty's excessive excitement was sort of really creepy and irritating.

It didn't help that she didn't stop with the intense questioning, not breaking for a moment to give time for Coco to understand or even take a breath.

"How long have you been here?" Niffty asked, continuing with the run around and starting to pick at things on Coco. "Why are you wearing a men's suit? Not that it's a bad thing! Oh, I see it doesn't fit you very well. Unless that's the style you're going for-"

Niffty didn't stop until Charlie took her by the shoulders and started pulling Niffty away from the new girl. She felt overtly sorry for her about Nifftys' invasive personality.

"Now Niffty," Charlie said, starting to drag her away from Coco in an attempt to keep the poor girl from crying. "Th-That's not how we treat a guest in our hotel! This a solemn place of healing and no judgement! Try not to scare them away before they even get to check in counter…"

"Speaking of which," Moxxy said, walking up next to Coco and looking around the room. He realized he couldn't find anything that made this place resemble an actual hotel. "Where is your check in desk?"

At that, the long haired demon girl pointed over the large… bar area. Over there, the tall white and pink demon was leaning against a beam while the wolf-cat demon sat there with his head held in his hand. The cat demon had a sort of vacant stare like he didn't want to be there and wanted everyone else to be there even less.

The cat just looked over at Coco and the others and chose to care even less, taking up a bottle he'd been nursing and beginning to drink.

"Ah don't bother," he said, acting like that was the end of the conversation.

"Isn't this place supposed to discourage sin?" Moxxy asked, looking fully confused.

"Doesn't mean it supports sobriety." Blitzo offered.

Coco chose not to think too hard on that one. Instead, she ended up looking over and staring at the taller demon. They had a long, pretty figure with fluffy white hair and an interesting color pattern of white and pink. She kept looking over at their eyes, a strange kind of heterochromia that were really interesting. She also couldn't quiet figure out if this very feminine demon was actually a girl or not…

After a minute, the same white and pink demon looked over and caught Coco staring at them. Instead of getting angry or confused, they just sort of grinned and let one set of arms uncross while looking over at Coco.

"See somethin' you like?" They said in a hummed voice, giving a smirk over to Coco.

"!" Coco quickly turned her head away and blushed with an embarrassed grin. "Sorry…"

"Oh~~~ A shy one?" They chuckled, enjoying the authentic tease they could get out of this. "Heh heh, fun."

"Don't scare the new girl away, Angle!" Charlie called back before looking over her shoulder and smiling at Coco again. "L-Let Vaggie help you settle in! She's the best person around!"

Coco looked confused, before the girl with long white hair walked up at her. She crossed her arms and gave Coco a light glare, something that was even more intimidating to see when you noticed the eye patch.

"So why exactly did you wanna come here?" Vaggie asked, skipping the introductions and going straight into the interrogation. "Because, don't let those assholes fool you, we're actually serious about what we do here."

"Uh…" Coco stumbled trying to look for the right answer, looking nervous as she realized Vaggie might actually be the most dangerous one here. "Well, you see, everywhere in Hell is kind of… In Hell?"

"And?" Vaggie asked, wondering why she was stating the obvious.

"W-Well I-," Coco looked off and felt very embarrassed now. Wasn't not wanting to stay outside in Hell a good enough reason?

Blitzo and the others seemed to pick up on this indecisiveness and decided to take action. Whether that be a good thing or not…

"Hey! What's with the 3rd degree here?" Milly asked, stepping right next to Coco and putting her hand on her shoulder to defend the girl. "I thought this was a hotel! Not some kind of police station."

"Yeah," Moxxy agreed, standing next to Milly. "Who cares why she's here? You obviously need the clientele."

"Guys…" Coco said, uneasy about how this was progressing.

"Hey! Does this look like some kind of halfway house to you?" Vaggie started, looking annoyed at the others.

"You want the nice answer or the honest answer?" Blitzo said, smirking as he came over and uncomfortably rested an elbow on Cocos' shoulder. "Look, I've got a perfectly mostly harmless idiot here who want a place to stay! She'll work with me during the day and sleep here at night, nice deal!"

"Mostly harmless idiot…?" Coco asked, looking semi-insulted.

Sensing an oncoming problem, everyone else in the room took their positions. Charlie ran up next to Vaggie to act as a mediator, Husk leaned back in his place for a better position, Angle moved closer to look over shoulders and laugh, and Niffty just decided to stand in front of Coco and look up at her because she thinks she's pretty.

'Oh no…' Coco realized this was bad.

"You can't just throw her in here because she can't take care of herself!" Vaggie yelled up at Blitzo, deciding to take out most of aggression on him. "This isn't just some pit stop you can throw people you don't want living in your office anymore!"  
"Excuse you!" Blitzo said, gesturing to everyone in the group, taking it personally and getting defensive. "But we value all of our useless staff!"

"What we mean is-" Charlie started, holding her hands up to keep a fight from breaking out. "This isn't just some place you get to stay in rent free and do whatever you want outside in!"

"It's not?" Angle asked, legit confused.

"This is a place of redemption!" Charlie yelled, looking at Angle and then at the rest of IMP. "I'm sorry but, if you can't follow our ideas or are willing to change then we can't keep you here. Everyone here is trying their best to change into better demons, to seek forgiveness!"

"Uh, you mean ALL of your residents are following these ideas of "redemption"." Moxxy said, putting it in quotation marks as he looked around. "Seems like this place needs a lot of work to even appear "redeemable"."

"Don't put quotation marks around our trademark!" Vaggie yelled directly at Moxxy.

"We… encourage everyone to follow our redemption path and understand if that they need more time or adjustment." Charlie said, searching her mind for excuses while also looking around and knowing she can't excuse much. "But! We fully believe in our cause and believe in everyone who comes through! Everyone deserves redemption!"

"Does whoring yourself out in Imp City one of those redemption targets?" Blitzo sarcastically taunted, pointing at the tall one called Angle.

"Hey!" Angle Dust pointed at Blitzo with a sharp finger. "I don't see you complain' you over priced cock tease. Has anyone ever complained about my services?"

"Maybe not services," Blitzo mocked, leaning back and crossing his arms while giving a side eye. "Mostly about the itchiness and burning afterwards."

"Oh, like you know how to run a business!" Angle shouted, about to get nasty but then straightened their back and started rubbing a pair of fingers together. "Then again, I guess it's easy to judge the clientele when most of your "business connections" only meet at night~"

Coco watched as this spiraled into a long, back and forth argument where the original problem was forgotten and now people were mostly spewing insults at one another. It was bad enough that she was surrounded by demons, but now she was surrounded by demons who were threatening each other and it was extremely uncomfortable!

Coco didn't know what was worse, the screaming all around her that was caused by her, or the fact that Niffty is still looking up at her with childlike wonder.

"And why does she even need to stay here?" Vaggie asked, now finally gesturing to Coco to bring her back into the conversation (or extend the insults and threats to her). "If you all have an office then you can house her in your own shit hole!"

"We actually can't house her in our shit holes," Blitzo started, standing up straight and crossing his arms. "I'm afraid she has a "special condition" that I'm not required to specify and you're required to accept!"

"Uh, we under no obligations to cater to your insanity!" Vaggie screamed out.

"What she means is," Charlie held Vaggie back and looked up at IMP in a futile attempt to be understanding. "We can't take in special cases unless they involve some kind of redemption."

"We're not a charity," Vaggie emphasized.

"You're not?" Coco asked, kind of confused.

"Do we look warm and cuddly to you?" Angle asked, smirking at Coco.

"I mean… some of you do?"

"We can be understanding though," Charlie said, putting on her warm smile again. "So, what is the reason you actually want to be here?"

Oh boy, they were back to this again. Everyone in IMP looked at each other nervously as they tried to find the best lie that could be disguised as an actual good hearted reason.

The funny thing is, none of them know how to be kind or good hearted.

"She needs this place for, well, uh, reasons…" Moxxy started, trying to pull something together.

"For uh," Milly also tried to improvise. "Health reasons and uh…"

"Medical condition?" Blitzo offered, also trying to expand upon this. "An, uh, incurable condition that uh, effects daily living and uh-"

"What?" Angle asked, getting annoyed at their obvious attempt to pull together a lie. "She got diphtheria or somethin'?"

"She's retarded," Luna said bluntly.

"AM NOT!" Coco yelled at her.

"What she means is!" Moxxy jumped in, now looking more panicked. "She uh, has um, a kind of special condition that applies to her… self."

"Like a personality… body disorder!" Milly offered, now wondering if she made things worse. "And it's tied to her… uh… state of being?"

"It's a religious thing!" Blitzo blurted out, now looking uncomfortable. "She uh… has a condition… caused by religion… and we can't… keep her at our office because we are too tolerant?"

This sad, pathetic display of lying was so annoying that even Coco was becoming more and more bothered bu it. It was enough that these guys were probably ruining any chance for her to live here, but they were doing a terrible job at explaining why!

'Fuck it,' was all Coco could think by this point. 'Might as well drop the last shoe.'

With that, Coco walked a few steps away from the group and whistled to get everyones' attention. Once everyone turned to look at her, Coco proceeded to take off the X wrist bands, let down her hair and finally, take off the horns head band.

Everyone stood there and stared at Coco for a minute, their minds processing, until somebody pointed out the obvious.

"That," Angle said, using one set of hands to point over at Coco with their eyes wide opened. "Is a human…"

And with that, everyone started freaking out.

"You brought a fucking human here!?" Vaggie yelled at IMP, looking back and forth between them and Coco with more panic than anger. "And then you brought her here? To us!?"

"Oh jeez…" Charlie stood stark still staring at Coco as her own panic started taking over. Knowing all of the unforeseen consequences that can happen from this. "A human… Here… In the hotel… Full of demons… Possibly an innocent being…"

"Right!" Moxxy said, intercepting quickly to try and deescalate the situation. "She's innocent! Free from sin! Perfect for this place!"

"We can't take a human." Vaggie said, flat out with no inflection. "It's not possible."

"Why the hell not!" Milly yelled, now also looking more panicked. "There's nothing wrong with her! We've kept her washed and fed, she won't break anything… maybe!"

"Do you not see the problems with keeping a human here!?" Vaggie yelled at them, gesturing to Coco before groaning. "Fuck! Where did you even get her from? Why did you even keep her!?"

"I'm not a dog…" Coco growled lightly under her breath, knowing full and well no one was listening to her still.

"We can't keep a human here," Charlie agreed, looking on at IMP with polite difference but obvious worry. "She could get hurt or accidentally cause a huge problem just from being here! There's liability issues, morality issues, fuck, probably some kind of legal-demon-heaven-Earth issues that I'm not even thinking of!"

"Not to mention she'll be fucking annoying," Angle said, rolling their eyes and crossing their hands over their chests while using one hand to count off reason they didn't want her. "Always whining and complaining like all humans do. No fun. Have to be careful around them so you don't break them."

"She'll fucking stink up the place," Husk growled out, also voicing his opinion. "Ain't no way any of us are gonna stay secret or quiet if somebody smells a fucking human in here!"

"Do you know how much trouble we'll be in for housing a human?" Vaggie said, gesturing to the outside as if all eyes were watching them. "We'll end up causing some kind of inter society turf war over possession of a live human! The answer is no!"

"Oh like we're not worried about that at all?!" Blitzo stated, gesturing to the rest of them while glaring at the others. "We've already housed her for almost a week! Do you know how picky human living conditions are?"

"Look," Moxxy tried to bring this back into the realm of logic. "We've had her here in Hell and out in public for about a week now. Nobody has noticed she's a human and nobody will."

"But we can't put her back and she needs somewhere safe to sleep for the night," Milly put in, also hoping to convince them with an emotional plea.

"And you don't have to worry about any crazy human stuff," Blitzo promised, trying to sell them on her clean spirit. "She's already on the path to go to Heaven! She just needs a place where she won't get eaten or accidentally start taking drugs~"

Coco watched this argument spiral again into nonsense before she walked up to the bar, held out the cursed book, and slammed it onto the bar top.

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

Surprising everyone to make them stay quiet, Coco walked up and took center stage. She was nervous at first, knowing full and well these were all demons who did not have a good first impression of her, but she knew she had to make her case in order to get any kind of fair judgement!

"Look," Coco started, looking all around her at everyone and giving a tired smile. "I know I'm causing a huge problem just by being here. I didn't want to come here and nobody wants me here. I know that, and… I can't feel hurt just because you all don't want to get in trouble for keeping me somewhere. I know I've already made my friends and workmates really uncomfortable because they have to keep me a secret…"

Everyone at IMP looked at each other and gulped, feeling a bit sad and nervous as Coco began to talk. They realized none of them have actually really tried to make her feel welcomed or comfortable in Hell, mostly because it's not possible.

"But it's not their fault!" Coco pleaded, now turning to look over at Charlie and Vaggie, her eyes soft and sorrowful. Then remembered that wait a minute she's wrong. "Or well, I mean, it is their fault but… It's also my fault. I… I'm not here because anyone wants me here or because I want to be here. I'm here because of a curse. And… I have to stay here until it's broken."

"Curse?" Vaggie said, looking up at Coco carefully with interest. "What kind of curse?"

"This kind," Coco rolled up the sleeve of her shirt and showed the big curse mark of the seven circled double pentagram. "It's some kind of old curse, tied to a book from here. Anyway, I have to live here with the book and the only way we know it'll break is if I die. Which is not happening."

"Lame," Angle commented.

"I don't want to die…" Coco sort of rolled her eyes and looked up at them again. "And, I know you guys are supposed to only redeem demons but… I also need help being a good person."

At that, everyone looked baffled. While IMP knew she was on the right path, they were also confused what she meant by "being a good person". They figured she was already good enough!

"We really only take demons though," Charlie said, clarifying her vision and purpose. "You see, most demons here sort of just… live their after lives in sin. Never thinking they could change o-or make Hell a better place! That's why we're here! To change demons a-and also change Hell for the better. We can't just take in a human because you don't feel safe here…"

"But that's what I mean," Coco said, taking a few steps closer to Charlie. "I don't just want to stay here because I think it's safe. I want to stay here because I want to change! I want to be a good person!"

Charlie, Vaggie, Angle and Niffty all blinked their eyes (and eye) at that. Surprised and curious by what Coco meant when they knew she was supposed to already go to Heaven!

"Listen," Coco started, looking away nervously for a moment and holding her hands together in a prayer form. "I know… I'm not a great person. I'm closed minded, I have insecurity issues, an inferiority complex, and sometimes I eat peanut butter straight out of the jar and put it back like normal without telling anyone…"

"I knew it!" Moxxy shouted out justified.

"But I want to be better," Coco said, looking up with conviction. "I want to be a better person. Even if I'm a good person now, if I died I'd go to heaven, that doesn't mean I'm really a good person! It just means I didn't do anything horrible and I barely passed the bar for a decent person. I want to be the best person I can be! And… I believe this is the place that will change me!"

Coco held a hand to her heart and tried thinking about all the years she's felt she's spent "going with the flow" and noticed how none of them seemed to make her feel actually good. How each belief and thought was just something she had been told, not something she has decided was good or necessary.

How many years has she wasted just being told what to do and not thinking for herself?

"I've tried to change back home but I never knew how or where to start. I always thought I just had to try harder. Now, now I know I just need to be with people who also believe they can change and want to change! I want to find the parts of me that can be better and help myself! So… please. Will you help me become a better person?"

Coco stopped and looked up, her final plea was one that she hoped could challenge and interest Charlie all together: Help a human be a good person.

Vaggie and Angle both looked at Charlie with skepticism and trepidation. They knew they didn't have to tell Charlie about how stupid that idea sounded. A demon? Helping a human be good?! That went against every ideal and belief demons had altogether. And even if they had been human once, what human they had had been mostly lost and they weren't certain Charlie could offer anything more since she had never been a human.

But Charlie looked on and considered it. An actual human, someone who wants to change and was asking for help, was at her door? If it had been any other demon, wouldn't she welcome them in with open arms? Willing to be hurt and still give them a second chance if they asked for it?Hadn't she also just entered an agreement with the Radio Demon and allowed her hotel, her business and dream, to be opened up and tampered with just for his entertainment?

'It's not a question of if I can do it.' Charlie looked up at Coco, a sweet and innocent looking girl who seemed to be the victim of bad luck making the best out of her situation. That hurt the most. 'It's if I can actually keep her safe along with everyone else in my hotel…'

Charlie thought about it. Her commitments to everyone here was to make sure the hotel was working and standing. Her commitment to the Radio Demon was to keep this place running and allow him free range of change and organization whenever he felt like it. She has been keeping her family and royal commitments at bay enough…

But what was her commitment to herself? Isn't Charlie committed to protecting her dream? To actually helping everyone who comes in and believing that there is good in everyone, that everyone deserves a chance and a helping hand.

'My commitment to this hotel is the same to everyone in it,' Charlie agreed within herself. 'To help whoever asks to come in here and change into better people.'

"Okay," Charlie said, nodding up at Coco and giving her a smile. "I'll, I mean… We at the Happy Hotel would be proud to have our first ever, human guest!"

"Really!" Coco looked up excitedly.

"Really?" Blitzo asked, looking confused but happy. "It was that easy?"

"What?" Angle looked confused.

"What!" Vaggie looked slightly outraged.

"Yay!" Niffty said excitedly. "I don't know what's going on!"

"We're all dead." Husk said blankly, taking another drink to numb his sense of overarching disappointment.

"Does this mean we have to pay for her rent?" Moxxy asked Blitzo quietly.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." Blitzo said secretively.

Coco had to hold still to contain her excitement, she was on the verge of tears at this! Before she knew it, Charlie walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a warm smile.

"Now, there are going to have to be some special rules for you," she said carefully, trying not to make it sound too harsh. "Just for safety's sake, but we'll try our best to keep everything manageable. All you have to do is make sure no one suspects you're a human outside of this hotel. Or else, we might come into some trouble out there…"

"Of course!" Coco agreed, nodding her head and smiling even more. "I'll keep it all quiet! I already work and everything, everyone already thinks I'm a demon. I'll just make sure nobody knows where I go or who I am!"

"Smart idea!" Charlie gave a thumbs up and continued on. "Look, the deal here is simple: Do your best to become a better person and help everyone else in here do the same. We're all trying to help demons rehabilitate themselves towards redemption; so try your best to become as good a person as you can be. Is that at deal?"

She didn't even have to think twice about it before hugging her.

"It's a deal," Coco said, hugging Charlie close and burying her head into her shoulder. "Thank you…"

"Thank you too," Charlie said, surprised at first but then hugging back. "For believing in me…"

Charlie couldn't remember the last time somebody actually, who heartedly believed in her and her cause. It almost felt like the first time. And she was surprised to see that a human could make her feel so welcomed…

"Aw~" Blitzo half mockingly sighed, starting to tear up. "It's so disgustingly sweet, I don't know if I want to barf or cry~"

"I'll do both in a second," Luna complained, now really tired of all of this shit. "Can we get on with this shit? This gay love fest is gonna give me diarrhea."

"Same…" Angle and Husk both complained under their breathes.

Everyone stopped and realized that maybe checking in a human for living here might be a little more complicated than they expected.

"Okay!" Charlie said up beat and stepping back, gesturing over behind her. "Well! You know what the hotel is all about, um, before I can give you guys a tour I need some-"

"Insurance," Vaggie said, immediately taking Charlie by the hand and starting to lead her away. "Let's uh, have managerial heart to heart. Just check in at the front desk for a minute!"

Everyone stopped and turned their heads over to the front desk/bar area and saw Husk take out some kind of clipboard. On it was basically form asking for basic information and an option of someone to call incase they needed to be taken to a mental hospital later.

"Sign here," was all Husk said as he put down a pen and let Coco get to work. Once she was done, he then took out a bottle of Whiskey and set it down on the bar."Ya gunna need this."

Coco stared at that questioningly before Blitzo came up, signed for the emergency contact info, and took the bottle with a cheerful face.

"Wonderful welcoming gift!" Was all he said as he took it over to the group and left Coco standing there.

"Ya gunna need this too," Husk then put a bottle of absence on the desk.

"Doesn't that stuff kill people?" Coco asked, pointing at the bottle carefully.

"Why's that gunna stop ya?" Angle asked, smirking over and reaching for the bottle, only to have it put away by Husk. "huh. A human, here in Hell? Well ain't that just stupid."

"Hey…" Coco said, wondering if she should feel offended or not.

"She's so cute!" Niffty said, standing up on a bar stool and staring at Coco with deep interest. "So neat! But wait! Are you sick? Have you been sick before? I heard humans carry all sorts of germs and diseases, are you carrying diseases? Are you?"

"UMMMMMM," Coco was incredibly uncomfortable and stepped back towards the group at IMP and chose to stand with them until the nice girl came back. "What exactly did I agree to again…?"

"I think you just sold your soul to the daughter of the devil," Moxxy responded, putting in a detail he forgot to mention before.

"…" Coco let that little detail sink in for a second before realizing she probably just made a very grave error. "… what?"

What were they even doing back there?

—Back office —-

Vaggie dragged Charlie into the back and stood her next to the door. After giving her a quick up and down to check and see if there was anything physically wrong or suspect, she went into her questioning.

"You can't be serious," Vaggie said, gesturing to outside the room while still staring directly at Charlie, giving her her best "you've gotta be kidding me" look. "She's a human!"

"She needs our help!" Charlie began to plead, holding her hands to her chest as if in prayer and beginning to beg for her defense. "What's the point of having a hotel for redemption if we don't help all those in need!"

"She needs to go back home!" Vaggie clarified, now pointing at the door. "And who the hell says she's actually here against her will? Should could have just, like, summoned a portal and jumped through and is now using them as an excuse!"

"Really, Vaggie?" Charlie gave her a sarcastic smile. "Because everyone really wants to come to Hell?"

"Okay," Vaggie facepalmed herself and admitted that part was stupid. "Maybe not that exactly, but it's still overly suspicious. How has she even been able to survive this long? Last time I checked, curses don't just drop you in the middle of Hell and let you go around un-scarred."

"Maybe it just left the mark as a sign that it's present?" Charlie offered, then tried to think back to that mark again. "Although, it was a really old kind of curse mark. Most of them aren't that intricate and delicate looking. And that book she was holding looked pretty weird. Kind of familiar to me…"

"You're missing the point!" Vaggie replied, trying to get Charlie back to reality and out of mystery mode. "That girl is a walking hazard! If anyone finds out we're harboring a human, or some demon gets a whiff of her human smell, she's dead and we're dead! And I don't know if you noticed, but she smells pretty strongly of fresh human blood!"

"Relax, Vaggie!" Charlie tried to start calming her friend down from her long tirade. "She obviously passes as a demon with that get up so she'll be fine in public! Besides! It's not like any of the demons in here are actually the human preying or magic wielding kind! Other than me, she'll be perfectly safe here!"

"Have you forgotten about Alastor?" Vaggie reminded her, actually kind of glad to use that windbags' name to her advantage.

"… Yes." Charlie admitted, now remembering the all powerful demon who supports and occasionally patronizes this hotel in an attempt to remain entertained on whim. What would he do if he found out or, even worse, smelt a human in this place… "Oh dear…."

She forgot about that…

-Back outside-

While feeling slightly less mortally in-danger while standing inside the Hazbin Hotel, Coco wondered if this actually was a good idea or not. Those girls have been in that one room for an uncomfortable five minutes and this little Niffty thing keeps staring at her and questioning her about the weirdest shit.

"I can kill her if you want," Luna offered, also getting more and more irritated by Nifftys' general existence.

"No," Coco said, starting to become stressed out as this waiting went on and on. "Please don't do that…"

"For someone who work in our office," Milly pipped in with a grin. "You're really uncomfortable with murder!"

"For a sound reason…" Coco responded.

At that, the door opened again and both Charlie and Vaggie appeared. Charlie looked slightly more stressed than before, but kept the same smile she had on from earlier.

"Alright!" She said, clapping her hands together and producing a solemn key. "We've got you signed up and everything, now let's begin with the check in!"

"Is that a skeleton key?" Moxxy asked, pointing at the key in Charlies' hand.

"They even make those anymore?" Blitzo asked, starting to get really excited and interested. "Hot damn! You won't believe the kinds of things we could do with-"

"It's not for you!" Vaggie yelled at them, glaring at IMP before looking back at Coco. "It's for the humans' own health."

"What is it?" Coco asked, stepping closer to have a look.

"Just what he said, a skeleton key," Charlie held up the key so Coco could have a good look at it. It was shaped like an old-time key, but had a solid apple motif at the end of it painted in gold. "These are a bit different from most typical keys. They can unlock any door that's locked! And here in Hell, this type of key works for most doors if you have a little bit of magic stored into it. Which I just so happen to have!"

"Oh, cool!" Coco said, picking the key up and taking a closer look at it.

It wasn't too big and felt almost dainty in her hand. It was no bigger than her pointer finger and was quiet thin, but overall was a very nice piece of metal.

"Lame," Blitzo responded, picking the key up from out of her hands and giving it a one over. "So it only unlocks doors? Not safes or banks or anything?"

"That's not the point," Charlie said, snatching it back and putting it back into Cocos' hands. "The point is, humans are really in danger here and need a bit of protection!"

"But she already has-" Milly began before Moxxy cupped her mouth and let Charlie continue.

"Think of it as a safe house key," Charlie said while looking at Coco eagerly. "With this you can come in and out of the hotel, your room, and you can also hide in a room in case you feel in danger!"

"Oh I see," Coco said, holding up the key in recognition of its potential. "It's like an emergency hideaway escape."

"Which means you can't lose it," Vaggie said, pointing at Coco critically. She still wasn't on board with have a human in this hotel, but had to accept what she couldn't since Charlie was adamant on keeping her. "Listen, we're only housing you here. We can't back you up or go around saving you if you get into any trouble. So you're on your own out there, got it?"

"Uh, got it?" Coco said, a bit intimidated by Vaggie.

Vaggie just turned away with a wave of her hair that reminded Coco of a puff of smoke. For someone who dressed so cutiesy, you wouldn't expect so much of an attitude. But Charlie seemed to make up for it in her happy and extroverted nature. She assured Coco that everything was going to be alright and made her promise to tell her if she needed anything.

At that, Coco knew it was time to say goodbye to everyone at IMP and send them off with a "see you tomorrow".

'Well this is weird,' Coco thought as she turned around to look at Blitzo and the others. 'How do you politely tell your co-workers to get lost?'

She couldn't also shake the uncomfortable feeling of loneliness she would feel once they were actually gone. After all, she had stayed with them in Hell for the last week and they were the only peop-…. demons, she knew a quasi-trusted. How could she spend a night or enter a new place without feeling insecure that they weren't there?

"Well, um," Coco began, smiling over at everyone at IMP. She had been especially fond of staying with Moxxy and Milly and would miss talking to them the most. "Guys, thank you for… Well, taking care of me all of the time! And thanks for bringing me here and helping me… You really didn't have to so-"

"Oh we had to," Moxxy stated, wiping away any delusions that he could ever be fond of or interested in taking care of Coco. "If we didn't stick you in here, you'd either still be slumming it in our office or be sleeping on the streets tonight."

"… So nice of you to say, Moxxy…" Coco said, just giving Moxxy a meaningless glare. "You make this so much easier for me."

"He's kidding!" Milly cheered, punching Moxxy in the shoulder and smiling at Coco. "We're gonna miss seeing you 24/7 at the office."

"Says who?" Both Moxxy and Luna asked.

"SAYS ME!" Milly yelled at both of them and smiled again at Coco. "Don't let them fool you! We loved having you around!"  
"Milly," Coco chuckled a bit before looking back at her. "Uh, I'm checking into a hotel. Not going to prison. You'll see me at the office tomorrow."

"Oh!" Milly looked like she had forgotten that part.

"She's right you know," Moxxy told Milly, stepping beside her to look at Coco again. Now deciding to be more civil. "Look, it'll be better for you here so you don't drive yourself crazy. So… I guess, good luck?"

"Good luck on what?" Luna laughed a bit. "Not wetting the bed?"

"Hey that wasn't me!" Coco said, blushing.

"No no," Moxxy stated, shaking his head. "Look, I mean, we'll see you tomorrow anyway? Just don't act like this is our last goodbye or anything."

"That's right, -sniff-," Blitzo said, walking up to stand next to Coco. He had been standing there and wavering between looking happy and ready to leave and on the verge of tears. For some reason, this was hitting him the hardest. "We've got a-an office to work at and a business to run! S-So while we all may feel heart broken at our sudden loss-"

"I'm not," Moxxy said.

"I feel fine," Milly said.

"I don't care," Luna growled.

"I'm not dead…" Coco groaned.

"We we we must remember that our work comes first!" Blitzo continued, trying to stay strong. He then grabbed Coco and pulled her next to him by her shoulder and proceeded with this long drawn out speech that was only emotional for him. "That we are a team! And no matter what, no matter how far from each other we are. Or how ever long we have to spend away from each other. Or how you won't be able to make sure she'd brushing her teeth at night and getting a good night's sleep. W-We must be strong and and and-"

"Please don't cry on me…" Coco said horrified.

Well she didn't get her wish because Blitzo broke down into bawls of tears. She was made further uncomfortable by the fact that Blitzo grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. Like a mom hugging her child before their first day, Blitzo seemed equally as emotional about letting Coco go and live semi-on her own.

"Oh this is horrible!" Blitzo cried and squeezed Coco, he would never have outright admitted he was growing attached to the girl but he did feel he was becoming overtly overprotective of her as a way to express his fondness. "I can't let you go out there, into the world, alone! What if you get cold? What if you get tired? What if you suddenly fall down a set of stairs and break your foot and can't stand up but you can't call for help because nobody is there and you're left alone for hours until somebody finds you and they have to chop your foot off!? I can't leave my poor baby in here all by herself! She has no one to protect her from these obviously stupid people in here!"

"Blitzo!" Coco shouted, trying to squirm out of the iron like grip that Blitzo has. Her face was bright red as she was embarrassed about how Blitzo was treating her in front of her new house mates as well as making fun of them in their own home! "Cut it out! The other demons are staring at us…"

"I thought he wasn't getting too attached to the human?" Milly asked Luna, pointing at the episode in front of them.

"I didn't say that," Luna clarified, glaring at the PDA Blitzo was so fond of. "I said he has YET TO attach a leash to the kid to follow her around more."

"Oh my damnation…" Moxxy complained, facepalming himself as he looked on at Blitzo and felt like he had reached a new level of professional embarrassment in his career from this. "Sir! Put the human down and let's go already? We already wasted half a day trying to get her into this place!"

"Hey! Have some decency for once!" Blitzo yelled back, continuing to hug Coco more as if he was dealing with his abandonment issues through this. "Do you know how hard it is to let go of somebody how has become this precious to our family? We're leaving her out for the wolves here people!"

"We've only had her for a week," Luna reminded him.

"We're not a family!" Moxxy stated again, for maybe the fifth time in one day.  
"I can take care of myself!" Coco complained again for the third time today.

"Will you all just hurry this up already!?" Vaggie shouted, now getting more irritated that so many people were in her work space. "Fuck! We don't have time to host a therapy session!"  
"Yeah can't ya' take this elsewhere?" Angle asked, looking more bored and irritated than before. "Some of us have better things than to watch-"

"SHUT IT!" All of IMP and Coco shouted. "WE'RE HAVING A BUSINESS MEETING!"

Everyone else shut up for a second and watched as everyone tried to put Blitzo together so he could leave Coco alone…

'This is exactly why I wanted to move in here,' Coco replayed all of Blitzos' overstepping boundary moves in her mind and settled on the fact that this was her best choice in Hell so far. 'So I could have at least some personal space…'

They managed to get Blitzo to hold himself together for everyone to actually prepare to leave. Milly and Moxxy had been nice enough to pack a nap-sack of extra clothes, some toiletries and a few old books to keep her occupied so she wouldn't drive herself too crazy. Luna didn't offer her much other than a "don't die out there" and a shrug, which was actually quite pleasant compared to how she usually acts.

Now, Coco had to proceed to walk Blitzo out the door and away from the her new room so she could settle in. But, he wasn't going to do so without nitpicking and nagging the entire way.

"Make sure you eat all of your meals," Blitzo began to instruct, as if he actually had full concern over Cocos' health. "No snacking in between meals!"

"Got it," Coco said, continuing to direct him and everyone else out.

"Make sure they know any and all of your allergies!" Blitzo chimed again, looking over towards Moxxy like he had some kind of actual information. "I bet they don't even know she's allergic to peanuts."

"No I'm not, leave now," Coco repeated.

"And drink plenty of water!" Blitzo reminded her.

"Yes…" Coco growled.

"Oh! And careful about milk labels!" Milly said, as if she was imparting important information. "That stuff goes bad quick!"

"Okay," Coco said, rolling her eyes. "I'll do that. Just-"

"Don't make them our special coffee!" Blitzo nearly begged, looking at Coco carefully. "It's our special thing~"

"And don't drink coffee before bed!" Moxxy reminded her, looking at her sternly. "The worst thing you can do is stay up all night like an insomniac and have us deal with it."

"Okay! I get it!" Coco yelled, marching towards the door and beckoning them to go faster. "Can you PLEASE just go back to IMP and watch office porn?"

"But first!" Blitzo interrupted again, now touching Cocos' hair and examining it. "Remember to wash your hair twice a day! It gets dry and frizzy if you don't."

"Yes," Coco reluctantly agreed, trying to make this go faster. "I'll do it. Just go…"

"And brush your teeth three times a day!" Moxxy chimed in. "No cavities in the office!"  
"And use mouth wash!" Milly added.

"Good point, Milly," Blitzo nodded. "Bad breath is bad for business."

"So is wasting our time…" Coco growled under her breath darkly.

"Do you really have everything you need?" Blitzo said, checking her meager possessions knowing full and well she doesn't have enough to live out of a hotel room but still acting disapprovingly. "Honestly, how can you take care of yourself like this? Why don't we just stay here and help you fix up you room and-"

"GET OUT OF THE HOTEL BEFORE I TEAR YOUR TAILS OFF!" Coco shouted, a small spark of Hell burn fire sparking out from under shoes for a moment.

In one movement, Coco held open the door, pushed all four of them out, yelled out a quick "see you tomorrow" and shut it in under a minute. She quickly turned the lock nob, leaned against the heavy wood door, and let out a long sigh of relief.

'Finally,' Coco thought to herself, starting to relax a little as the she fell into the dark cool door. She took in a deep breath, only a slight sent of the burning trash air of outside was left over in the clean air from the hotel. 'This is… the first time I can actually relax away from the actual demons who brought me here…'

And then they left. Left her with a bunch of other clueless idiots who had even less of an idea about what to do with her.

'And now I miss them…'


	9. I want to hide under the bed and scream

**Notice: It looks like there was a glitch with the system previously that caused some formatting problems and locked me out of my account. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I appreciate all of the patience waiting for this!**

While Coco had been (actually) pushing her work mates and single support group out of the door, there was an impromptu group meeting in the lobby area. All of which regarding the elephant in the room: … The human.

"Okay!" Charlie said excitedly, spinning around and tapping her fist in an opened palm. She looked very excited to be taking on this additional responsibility that she was ill equipped and ill prepared to deal with. "So! As you guys may already know, we have a new guest staying with us!"  
"Yeah," Husk said boredly, laying his head on the table and rolling his eyes. "We were here for that…"

"R-Right," Charlie remembered that they were indeed all in the same room while this was happening. "Well, then we all know that she's obviously a human."

"Obviously," Vaggie said in a restrained voice while avoiding eye contact.

"Which means," Charlie further went on and began to start giving instructions. "That we all need to be more careful with what we're doing here. Humans are preeeeeeeeeeeeeetty delicate from what I understand. So we should prooooooooobabllllllllly start setting down some, um, guidelines on how to run the hotel with her around!"

"…. You've never actually met a real human before, have you?" Angel asked, looking at Charlie with a fair amount of skepticism and confusion.

"Nope," Charlie admitted.

Everyone in the group, except for Niffty, groaned loudly. They had all wondered what came over Charlie in the moment of agreeing to take in a little human into the hotel and now they faced the possibility of having more rules? Really?

"Having one rule in Hell is too many!" Angel yelled out, holding out both set of hands to show how dumb this whole situation was. "And now you wanna make a bunch of them inside this hotel? Just because a human is here! Great! Why don't we all also start trying to be nicer to one another and start congratulating everyone on their poor decision makin' skills!"

"That's…. actually…. Not a bad idea," Charlie began before clearing her throat and getting back into it. "Look, it's not too much to ask that everybody think about keeping the human secret. After all! Having her here is important to the Hotel and we don't want to cause any attention by having a human staying with us."

"How is having a human staying here important again?" Vaggie asked, looking tired and impossibly over worked. She had tried talking sense into Charlie earlier but knew that it was getting no where so she stuck with just keeping Charlies' expectations under control. "If anything, having a human here is just a safety hazard."

"It's because we actually have an innocent soul here!" Charlie said excitedly, looking at this situation as an opportunity ripe for the picking! "Having someone who is free from sin helps us all understand how to be redeemed! She'll have so much insight on how to be a good person, I know she'll help us change altogether!"

"Uh, I don't know about you people," Angel started, crossing his arms and giving a light glare over to the human. "But I don't need some literally sticking human telling me how to run my afterlife! I'm doing just fine, thanks."

"Yeah. Porn start junkie," Vaggie said, rolling her eyes. "Real fine…"

"Hey! I got a good rep and a good place to sleep at night, baby," Angel said, now smirking a little at Vaggie. "Sometimes a different bed every night, if I have to. But I'm slummin' it here until I'm clean and then we'll go from there."

"Plus!" Niffty said, raising her hand in the air. "Didn't the human say she wanted to be a better person? How do we know if she's not a murderer? Or an addict? Or a hoarder? Or, ah! What if she's as bad as Angel!"

"I'm gonna punt you so hard out that window…." Angel growled under his breath.

Charlie had to quickly go back to keeping the peace by separating Angel from Niffty and getting them refocused. After all, this was important to her!

"Look guys," Charlie started again, holding out her hands and showing she meant no harm but needed them to cooperate with her. "Coco is a part of our hotel now. And we can either look at it as a burden or as an opportunity! I say we should all try our best to… Welcome Coco in Hell officially!"

"So we should make her even more miserable?" Angel said, cracking a grin and a laugh. "Okay, I mean if that's what you want-"

"NO!" Charlie stopped Angel mid-sentence and went back to correcting herself. "I mean- We need to all welcome her into the Hotel and recommitting ourselves to redemption! I'm calling an all staff, all-guest support group!"

"Support group?" Vaggie, Angel, Husk and Niffty echoed in confusion.

"Right!" Charlie said, standing proudly as she believed her idea was brilliant. "A support group! If we can learn how the human is in her good ways, then she can also learn how to be a better person! Plus! We can learn what qualities are considered good and work towards redemption! Sounds like a good idea, right?"

Charlie was met with more groaning, following with almost all of the demons muttering annoyedly to themselves. Vaggie was a lot more polite and reverted to trying to support Charlie but keep her realistic.

"Look," Vaggie said, walking up to Charlie and putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know you mean well and I know you only want the best for everyone."

"Aw~" Charlie looked at Vaggie with happy, glittering eyes, "Vaggs~~"

"But you're being blind to the problems with it again." Vaggie said, snapping her fingers in front of Charlies face. "Having a human here won't change anyone's minds about redemptions. And, I don't want to say I told you so, but I'm really worried about keeping a human here when we're not sure if anyone's committed to redemption."

"Angel is!" Charlie stated, sighing a bit before looking at the group again. "Come on, guys! What could be so bad about having a human around here to brighten up the place?"

"She stinks." Husk pointed out.

"She could be messy," Niffty said.

"She could die," Vaggie pointed out the obvious.

"She'll be annoying," Angel huffed.

"You don't even know her!" Charlie exclaimed, trying to remember why she doesn't beat the living crap out of half of them.

"So?" Angle shrugged his shoulders and let the lower set of arms hold themselves out. "It's not hard to figure out if someone'll be annoying."

"Yeah," Vaggie agreed, pointing a thumb behind her to Angel. "I always know he's going to be a walking migraine and I don't even have to try hard to figure it out."

"Agreed," Husk said boredly. "Him and the tiny fuck."

"You're no better than either of them!"

"Can't we all please just give everyone a chance…." Charlie said vacantly.

Charlie didn't know what to do, she was honestly considering giving up and considering this human thing a lost cause. After all, what did she know about helping humans and how to make better people? She was as lost as they are…

Coco had since gotten up from the door and walked over, electing to stand next to Charlie since she was the less dangerous of the group. But, when she walked up, all she was met with was collective staring from everyone else,

'What the Hell?' Coco thought, looking on confused at the rest of the hotel as they kept staring at her like they were judging her very existence. 'This is weird. What did I do other than exist…?'

Feeling a little bit overwhelmed, Coco tapped on Charlies' shoulder to get her attention.

"Um, heh heh," Coco chuckled a bit and blushed, trying to put on a happy face for Charlie. "The others' left so, um, I'm ready to start anything if you want!"

Charlie, surprised at first, looked a little startled. But then she settled down and smiled fully at Coco. Who knew having some bright human around would make her feel so energetic.

"Right!" Charlie said, turning to the others and holding her hand up high in the air like she was showing something off. "First! How about a round of introductions? It'll be a great way for you to get to know our staff and guests!"

"O-Okay," Coco said, keeping her smile on as she turned to look at the demons who were obviously uncomfortable having her in the same room. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea…"

"Alright guys!" Charlie looked on and clapped her hands. "Is everybody ready?"

She was met by widespread moaning-groaning-complaining.

'These guys really know how to make you feel un-welcomed,' Coco thought. Not blaming them but still feeling insulted.

"O~~okay!" Charlie started, clapping her hands and looking at Coco again. "I'm Charlie. If there's anything you need help with, just let me know!"

"Great," Coco gave a relieved sigh and smiled. "Nice to meet you again."

"And this is Vaggie," Charlie said, walking over behind the girl with long white hair and an eye patch. "She's the co-owner and general manager. I'm sure you two will get along just great!"  
"Alright," Coco walked up and held out her friend, smiling at Vaggie. "Nice to meet you, Vaggie."

"…" Vaggie just stood there and glared at Coco for a moment, not taking her eyes off of her and letting everyone know that she disapproved of this whole situation. "Just follow the rules, don't be nosey, and try to stay out of everyones' way. That way, you won't die."

"O-Okay…" Coco said, letting her hand fall down and fidget at her side. She has yet to understand what this girls' deal is but can't argue with someone who's willing to house you no matter what your shit is. "Thank… you?"

"Okay…" Charlie let go of Vaggie and looked at her questioningly before smiling again at Coco. "Let me introduce you to the rest of the staff!"

She took Coco gently by the shoulder and walked her back over to the front desk/bar area.

"This," Charlie started, holding out her hand to the tall cat-wolf-…kind of bird mixed demon. "Is Husk! You'll see him working the front desk."

"Hello," Coco said, giving a wave before studying the area and looking up at him questioningly. "Is this… really a bar?"

"Yeah," Husk answered, not bothering with more.

"Is it… alright… to have a bar here?" Coco asked, wondering if she was even asking the right person or not?

"Do I bother you with stupid questions?" Husk mockingly asked.

"… noted." Coco commented under her breath, making sure never to actually come to this guy with actual questions ever again.

"Alright," Charlie said, ignoring that sidebar and turning Coco around to meet the smallest of the staff. "And this is Niffty! She's our housekeeper."

"Oh right," Coco said, remembering the small pink ball of anxiety that had been studying her non-stop since last chapter. "Uh, hi. How are you?"

"I'm great! Thanks for asking- OH MY CLEAN HOUSE!" In that same exclamation, Niffty picked Coco up by her feat just so she could stare at the bottom of her shoes. "Your feet are FILTHY! Have you been walking outside in them!?"

"UM," Coco was just impressed by the extreme strength of one tiny little cyclops-thing that just picked her up and held her over her head like a tub of bleach. "Yes…?"

"Oh this is just dreadful!" In the same breath, Niffty pulled off Cocos' shoes, threw them across the room, then let Coco down onto the floor and smiled up like nothing ever happened. "There! Now we can have a nice pleasant conversation! It's been awhile since we had new friends come here!"  
"… um…" Coco didn't know how to process that.

"As a lady you should really be wearing nicer clothes," Niffty said, starting to stare at her before following up with another comment. "No offense."

"None taken…?" Coco said confused. "Um… my shoes-"

"So dirty!" Niffty exclaimed, going over the strands of Cocos' hair and looking over them. "And this hair! There's so much of it! So thick! Looks like you don't take good enough care of it, which is kind of weird 'cause you're a lady. No offense."

"None taken…" Coco said, a little testy.

"And why are you carrying such a filthy bag!" Niffty said, holding up the laptop carrier Coco uses everyday. "It's so old and ugly and-"

"Okay that I take offense to!" Coco shouted, taking her bag back protectively.

Charlie giggled momentarily before subtly signaling to Vaggie who walked over and pulled Niffty away with her, still curiously going over things that were personally invasive and uncalled for. Coco stood there feeling a bit drained of pride before turning back to look up at Charlie.

There couldn't be anything worse than that, right?

"Alright!" Charlie clapped joyfully before turning Coco around to look at the tall white and pink demon who had been standing there like they had nothing better to do. "Now, let me introduce you to our other patron. This is Angle Dust, you guy's will probably be seeing a lot of each other around here."

Coco had to turn her head up to look up at the tall demon standing in front of her. They were a strange aesthetic mix that made them very interesting to look at: feminine combined with sharp edges. Some mix that Coco knew she could never accomplish.

She really would like it if this person was at least semi-decent to be around…

"Hi!" Coco said excitedly, already holding her hand out to shake and introduce herself to them. "I'm Coachella, but call me Coco. It's nice to meet you!"

Angle Dust just looked down at her and sort of squinted through his eyes. It was weird how something that was momentarily interesting became such a fucking pest in under a minute. It might have been because of her rag-tag appearance, her messy hair, that she had dirt under her fingernails or because she was so stumpy.

Or maybe it's because he instantly didn't like how she seemed to believe she was already special just because she wanted to be good. And that sort of bothered him to no end.

"So~" Angel Dust began, a smirk creeping up and their face before they crossed a set of arms and leaned forward a little. Sort of taunting with their height and easy laugh. "The freak show kicked ya' out and sent ya' packin' to here with the rest of the rejects?"

"Wha-" Coco looked confused for a second, lowering her hand a bit and wondering if she should step back a little to give them some space. "I don't know if, I'm um-"

"Just havin' a little fun," Angel said with a light chuckle. They let one of their lower arms fall and take Cocos' hand by surprise in a quick shake. They grinned sarcastically and gave a light pat on Coco's arm. "The names' Angel. And what these sorry sack of losers won't tell ya' is that this place is the biggest laughing stock on the block."

"Angel!" Charlie said indignantly, stepping forward.

"What?" Angel shrugged and took two long strides to stand behind Coco. Using her like a protective wall while he continued to semi-taunt her. "Do I look like I would lie to you? I mean, maybe pick pocket or stab ya', but not lie!"

"Cut the crap!" Vaggie shouted from her spot, looking equally as indignant as Charlie. "And quit filling her head with your bullshit!"

"Oh ye of little faith! Didn't I also come here for the same bullshit as everyone else? And besides," Angel leaned down on one of Coco's shoulders and pulled his face close to hers'. Giving his best version of an teasing grin and let his voice drop a few tones quieter to act secretive. "Do I really look like I would lie to you?"

Coco felt her mouth tighten just as her face started to light up. Who was this person? They were getting way too close into her personal space and by this time, if Blitzo was here, Angel would have been shot or at least had to deal with many broken arms. But now, she had to deal with the fact that Angel was talking very smoothly, smelt very interesting and looked just… so…

So aesthetically ambiguous that she was really hoping Angel is a girl.

And it was making Coco as tongue-tied and babbling as she gets whenever she's talking to a pretty girl.

"Um, I-" Coco started, already feeling intimidated and confused about why her mouth is moving and what exactly is coming out of it. "I guess I- don't just- know if you- I uh- Well we're- we're- we're we're under a lot of uh, things that- that- that- that could we you! You could- um if we're being honest here we could- uhhhh- not that you're not- it's just that- that- uh- I don't know why I'm speaking anymore, what was the question again…"

'Smooth Coco,' she mentally kicked herself. 'Very smooth…'

It didn't take much to give away how obviously nervous Angle made Coco, and than made him laugh.

"This is fucking hilarious!" Angle slapped Cocos' back hard and then stood up straight, clutching his sides as he started to rock lightly with laugher. "You got the only virgin in Hell sleepin' here with me! Ha ha ha!Oh! The fuckin' irony!"

While Angle was currently laughing at her, pleased with the results of his teasing, Coco let it sink in that she had been played like a fiddle in front of a very tense audience. And that was just a bit too much to deal with given that she's already been forced to live with this person, now getting teased by them too?

"I'm not a!" Coco shouted, blushing all over while she stomped her foot down in pseudo-conviction. Not sure why she was suddenly embarrassed about being called a virgin now that she's an adult, but it's just one thing to many to be tormented about. "You don't just- UGH! I am not!"

"Kid, you look like you'd faint if you ever saw dick in real life," Angle commented, leaning back on a support beam again and starting to examine his nails like personal handiwork. "If that's even what you're in to."

"I am not a kid!" Coco pouted.

After watching this incredibly stupid and cringe worthy scene, Charlie was seriously wondering if this was a good idea anymore.

So her solution was to end it as quickly as possible.

"OKAY!" Charlie said a little loudly while clapping her hands and putting on a very stressed smile. It was time for her to move on. "Leeeeet's get you settled in here, Coco! Razzle! Dazzle!"

Coco looked confused for a moment until two small goat-boys' walked in behind Charlie. They were short little things with fluff on top and dressed in mini-tuxedos. The only thing that distinguished one from the other was that one set of horns was turned opposite.

"Who-" Coco started, pointing at the goats.

"Meet Razzle and Dazzle!" Charlie cheered, presenting the two of them to her with a proud face. "They've been with me for a long time! I'll have them take up your bags and prepare anything you need."

"But they-" Coco started again, uncomfortably looking over to Vaggie and Angel for explanations. "Are they-"

"Little assholes," Angel said tiredly, giving a short glare over to Razzle in particular.

"They don't bite," Vaggie brushed her hair with one hand but also kept a considerable distance from them. "Just don't let them push you into anything."

"How can they-" Coco started again before the two of them were standing right in front of her.

Even though Coco didn't see them move and had no idea where they came from, Razzle and Dazzle just stared up at her in honest fascination like children. It was so disarming, they reminded her of being inside a petting zoo. A petting zoo filled with rabid knife wielding animals, but a friendly kind.

'So cute~~~~!' Coco thought while smiling down at them with a blush.

"She's an idiot," Angel concluded, resting an elbow on the bar while watching her from afar. He gave a short side eye to Husk, feigning disinterest. "I give her a month before someone crashes into her wit' their car."

"I give her a week before she's eaten," Husk said, looking over at Niffty whose been taking increased interest. "Inside the hotel."

"Wanna put money on it?" Angel said, smiling.

"I ain't wastin' money to have to talk to you," Husk said, rolling his eyes and leaning away.

"Fine," Angel shrugged before smirking and leaning across the bar now. "We don't have to bet money though~"

"Quit it!" Vaggie said sternly while hitting the bar, then turning her attention back to Coco as she handed her two bags to each goat-boy. "Nobody's dying OR gambling in this hotel. Just try not to kill or reveal the human while she's under this roof."

"You're no fun," Angel said, standing up straight and crossing both sets of arms across his chest. "What's the point of havin' a human around here if we ain't gonna mess with her? Ain't that the point of humans comin' to Hell or somethin'?"

"The point is-" Vaggie stopped because she realized there was no point and nothing actually mattered. "Just do what I say!"

"Fine!" Angel shouted, exhaustedly with his arms up and then settled back into a bar stool annoyed. "Not like it would kill 'er to make things a little more interesting around here."

"It would kill her," Vaggie stated.

Coco let Razzle and Dazzle go with her two bags but kept the book with her. While they were cute and all, she thought it was best to probably not let any other demon touch her book.

"Okay!" Charlie cheered, walking up to Coco with a smile. "So! You have the skeleton key, so I'll let you choose any room on our occupied floor! Razzle and Dazzle know their way around and they'll drop your stuff off and make up whatever room you choose."

"Oh cool!" Coco said excitedly, looking at Charlie with excitement and gusto. "Then where do we go to-"

"Simple!" Charlie turned around and held out her hand towards the bar. "Angel'll show you around and help you pick one out!"

"…" Coco felt her sanity break a little with her smile still intact. "What?"

"What?" Angle looked almost insulted before he held his head up, groaned and started to complain. "Why do I have to show around the ugly freak?"  
"Hey!" Coco shouted.

"Because you know the best rooms to stay in," Charlie reasoned, looking over and smiling at both of them. "Besides! It'll be good for both our guests to stay near each other."

"Saves on cleaning!" Niffty stated, looking like she meant that in a… different way.

"Just do it," Vaggie said, literally kicking the stool out from under him and making him stand up. "As if you have anything better to do."

Angel just grumbled in response but walked over to Coco with two sets of hands in his pockets. He only gave her a quick, sidelong glance before huffing, turning up his nose at her and walking past.

"Come on then," Angel said, walking away towards a set of stairs in long strides. "I ain't got all day."

"Uh," Coco looked back at Charlie and Vaggie for answers but got unreadable faces in response. So, judging that she had no better options, Coco decided to follow Angel and just hope she won't get lost forever in this hotel. "O-Okay!"

Once they left, Vaggie walked up to Charlie and gave her a questioning expression.

"You sure it's a good idea to leave Angel Dust in charge of her?" Vaggie said, pointing her thumb in the direction where they left. "He's not the most reliable. What if she gets lost in here and we never find her?"

"Not to worry!" Charlie thumbed her nose and gave a grin. "In case of an emergency, I let Razzle and Dazzle know to always keep an eye on her in the hotel in case she needs help. Plus, that skeleton key can lead her back anywhere!"

"Yeah," Vaggie crossed her arms over her chest. "But only if she knows how to use it. Right now it only unlocks doors."

"Oh yeah," Charlie thought about that. "I guess she'd need a lot of sorcery skills to be able to do things like go from one place to another with only a door."

"Like she'd be able to ever do that." Vaggie said.

Suddenly, Vaggie felt like she just jinxed herself.

-Currently with the tall pink guy and smol brown girl-

Coco had trouble keeping up with Angel because their walk was so quick. They had such long legs that even if they were walking slowly with a wiggle, they took lengths gracefully forward. Coco had to lightly jog just to keep up with them, which was harder given that she had to carry a heavy book attached to her hip.

'Well this isn't awkward at all,' Coco self mocked as she looked around. The hallways of the hotel being a mix of rugged-destroyed with varying styles. 'This place sure… doesn't fit together.'

"So…" Coco began, catching in step slightly behind Angel as they walked down somewhat never ending halls. "How long have you been staying here?"

"Awhile," Angel said, non-committedly while shrugging his shoulders. He had sort of lost his initial nervousness when he first came here and settled into a complacent lull of neither caring nor wanting to leave. "Eh, guess this place kind of grows on you. What with it's depressing walls and over-satisfied sense of failure."

"… I thought this place reminded me of high school," Coco stated, suddenly also becoming very familiar and depressed.

They walked in silence for a little longer until Coco found it unbearable and put herself through the torture known as talking to Angel Dust.

"Um, I'm kind of new here," Coco started, trying to find any way to start a conversation.

"Obviously," Angel shrugged.

"Well, I," Coco thought about it before gibberish started spewing out. Alternating between sweating, rubbing the back of her neck and trying to look anywhere else. "I uh, I don't get a lot of Hell. Or this Hotel either. So, what are the rules or? What should I do to try and not well offend anyone? I just don't wanna-"

"Ha ha!" Angel laughed for a minute before turning around to look at Coco while leaning relaxed against the wall, grinning at her as if she said something supremely smart. "What? You think there's rules here?"

"Well-" Coco looked away, blushing at how dumb that had sounded. "I-I meant more like, things I should know to-"

"Look. Kid." Angel stopped her mid-sentence and walked over, putting his arm over her shoulder and leaning over. "You're cute and everything, but this ain't how this is gonna work."

"Huh?"

"I'm not here to be your buddy-buddy big brother," Angel said, standing up to his full length and puffing up his chest before turning to start walking away. "I mean, what? You think you're gonna land in Hell and find yourself amongst some "pure-hearted souls" who just want to do the right thing 'cause they "see somethin' special" in ya? 'Cause if ya did, you're stupider than you look."

Coco found herself shutting up and listening while the tall, boisterous demon paraded himself lightly down the hallway. While she may have a small instinct to feel offended, she had a large amount of sense to tell her that being rude to an asshole of a demon might not be a good idea.

"Oh I know all about your type," Angel said with a lazy shrugged while shooting her a sideways grin. "You spend your whole life playin' "sweet and nice" and coastin' by with your "good girl" face; and pretendin' you're different from those "other girls" just 'cause you're kind of smart. Which your not, just big mouthed. And maybe you do one or two "crazy" things like date a black guy or go to another country to do somethin' self-satisfiyan' like "helpin' the orphans" or "servin' the poor". When really you're just an over bloated suburb reject with big self-entitlement issues mixed in with some martyr complex."

He spun around his heel and stopped two feet from Coco before leaning down from his waste and putting his face right in front of hers'. He continued with his lazy grin, but Coco could see some kind of deep chagrin mixed in that black eye of his.

"You're nothin' but another little brat who thinks she's so special, when actually she's just no better than anyone else around her." Angel said hushed before straightening up again and letting out a small whistle. "For your own good, I'd drop the goody-two-shoes act and stick to tryin' to figure out why you're here. If you're smart, you'll figure it out. Quicker ya do, the less time I have to spend smellin' ya."

Coco stood there in confusion as Angel walked forward a little. It felt really weird that she honestly could follow… but couldn't figure out if he was necessarily making fun of her or if he was just naturally an asshole.

"…" Coco cocked her head at him as she realized the most confusing part of all of this. "You're a guy?"

Angel froze up at that an surpassed a small urge to sock it to her, and instead decided to play it like a joke.

"Yeah~" Angel smiled false-sweetly. "And maybe ya should learn not to state the obvious all the time, Miss. Virgin Mary."

"I'm not!" Coco complained again, now just following behind Angel again two steps behind for safety. "Wait. Why do I even care…"

"Good call," Angel said, shrugging. "In fact, just think like that for the rest of time you're here. Don't matter what you do or see, just don't care."

"That's kind of hard for me," Coco admitted, feeling more dejected than angry anymore. She elected to keep following him, in the hope that eventually they'd find a room and she could cry alone in.

"Get used to it. In fact, I stopped caring about whatever it was we're doing when we started."

"… You're so helpful," Coco said under her breath.

'No one told me he was going to be this tiring,' Coco thought sullenly as she kept pace with Angel but tried not to look at him anymore.

Angel stopped after turning down a hallway that had about five different sets of rooms on each side. There were no windows in the hallways, just full length mirrors, strange wallpaper, and the overwhelming sense of deja vu that happens when you think you've been somewhere before but are too afraid to remember where or when.

"So this is basically everything they have that's livable," Angel said, gesturing his hand down the hallway before momentarily pointing in one direction. "My room's over there. So, do me a favor and don't get too close."

"What is your-" Coco was about to ask what's his problem but was stopped by Angel jumping in.

"'Cause ya stink like never endin' humanity," Angel answered quickly. "I can't have all my stuff stinkin' of human, it'll drive my customers' crazy! Or, maybe make 'em more blood thirsty."

"I smell?" Coco lifted up her arm and smelled under her arm.

"Like the fresh and merciful," Angel made a disgusted face before leaning against a wall. "Try not to get too close to anyone out there or bleed or somethin'. You might drive one of the less fortunate and stupid crazy enough to go on an unpredictable murder spree. Or, well, you might just give them a new reason too, heh heh."

"Wait," Coco looked even more confused now. "Demons will do that if they smell humans?"

"The dumber ones will. Can't handle the smell of humanity. Drive one of two instincts into over drive: Kill or Fuck."

"So," Coco decided to lean against the wall opposite of Angel and thought about that metaphor. "It's sort of like living in an unending game of "Fuck, Marry, Kill" down here?"

"What's that?" Angel asked, looking actually interested in something Coco had to say for once.

"It's this game," Coco said excitedly, happy to talk about a game and something somewhat normal from what she's used to. "We played it a lot in college. Basically, you and your friends find a set of strangers and you have to quickly decide whether you'd fuck them, marry them or kill them. You have to say it quickly and can't change your mind!"

"Yeah, that's pretty accurate about how it works down here. Minus the marry thing," Angel said, ending in a chuckle and looking quickly entertained. "So? You mortals are actually playin' something like that up there? Earth just got interesting all of a sudden."

"It's different." Coco admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "But, I mean, it's just a game. We wouldn't actually ever do it in real life."

"So you just talk and don't do nothin' about it," Angel summed up. He rolled his eyes ambivalently but still grinned. "'Guess not much has changed then."

"Maybe," Coco said, looking at Angel confused. "Uh, wait. You used to live-"

"As a human." Angel finished almost politely. "Yeah, you guessed it. In fact, lots of us did. But, try not to pry too much. Else you might just be inviting for someone to eat you up…"

"G-Got it," Coco said, immediately looking away.

Angel fidgeted for a moment. This was weird. From where he stood, this tiny little human girl should mean nothing to him. But she kept giving off weird vibes, and he couldn't decide whether he wanted to ignore her or torment her further. It was almost irritating how he had some lingering interest in her, so he wanted to quash any sentiment she had for him so that she'd stay out of his way for the rest of her stay.

"Look, I'm given' out a bunch of free advice here, so you better be grateful." Angel said, flipping over a hand and walking away towards a room. "And don't come to me whinin' for some tips or nothin: I ain't got time for it!"

"What do you even do around here?" Coco asked, now irritated as she followed Angel further with her hands in her pockets. "Do you work for the hotel or something?"

"Let's just say, I'm a promoter," Angel said, turning his head to the side and giving Coco a grin over his shoulder. "An Adult entertainment promoter~"

It wasn't hard for Coco to figure out what that implied. But what that meant exactly was shadowy enough that Coco wasn't sure if she wanted to know more about what he meant.

"And just some free advice," Angel said, holding his hand up and waving it. "Don't go askin' for help around here anymore. You got lucky so far. Anymore, and people are gonna start askin' for favors in return~"

"Wait-" Coco stopped and tried to take some control of this situation for herself. She was sure what he could say next could end up putting her in some… uncomfortable situations that she is sure will be positively unpleasant. "I don't know what you think but I-!"

"Don't worry, kid," Angel cut her off by stopping and leaning against a door with a grin. "You're not my type. Plus, even if you do look like some fun, you couldn't afford me~"

Coco held her tongue and just stared blankly at Angel. Whatever goes through this demons' mind is beyond her and she really didn't think keeping up with it was good for her sanity. All she wanted was to know which room she could crawl into and hide in until work tomorrow morning.

"And that's the last advice you're gettin' for free from me," Angel said, now going ahead and opening up the door to the room. "Consider this a token of my generosity~ Here's your room."

She went ahead and walked up beside Angel to peer into the dark, unlit room. From what Coco saw, the room was big but reminiscent of a Bates' Motel room. The furniture was all dark and coated in red, including a desk, side table, set of drawers and an old wardrobe. The bed was a big four poster that seemed plush yet uninviting. There was a full length mirror across from the bed that seemed to be watching it. And a large window with dark black curtains drawn yet letting a foreboding red light creep out from around it.

The room looked like the set up of a murder scene both before, after and during said event. Coco wouldn't even trust living in the same house as a room like this, let alone an actual room like it!

"Hey, it's pretty big," Angel mused, looking around at it. He was unimpressed with most of the other rooms but still wouldn't mind stealing this one from her if he was ever in a pinch. "Alright, now you know you can trust my excellent taste!"

"Trust your taste in what exactly?" Coco asked while looking on nervously at the room, still swimming in thoughts of self loathing and fear. Then directing her attention to his outfit that looked like a mix of Lolita meets Nightmare on Elm Street. "Horror movie sets?"

"What? You don't like your room?" Angel said before sucking his teeth and rolling his eyes. This would be the first time he actually touched the human, but her went ahead and used one of his hands to push her chin up to look him in the eyes. "Listen, baby. Hell's not the place to be picky. And, I promise ya', I can make ya' a lot more uncomfortable if that's what you want~"

"…" Coco's mind went blank for a moment since she wasn't sure if Angel really was implying what she thought he was implying. "… N-No. I mean I- I understand. The room is… okay."

"Great!" Angel smiled and let go of her face, feeling satisfied.

Coco stood there uncomfortably in the door way for minute, resistant to committing herself to this obviously untrustworthy situation she was being hoisted into. But, seeing no other option that was better than just getting this over with, Coco went ahead and stepped inside the room. As soon as she did, both Razzle and Dazzle appeared and set down her small amount of luggage, leaving it there and looking up at her proudly for thanks.

Seeing they weren't going away until she acknowledged something, Coco gave him an uncomfortable grin and searched the pockets of her jacket and pants for anything to give. She came up with what felt like coins but what could have easily have been buttons or squashed bullets (knowing whatever Blitzo would pick up and put in his pockets). Whatever it was, they seemed happy about it and left giddy, giving Angel strange looks at which he just hissed at as they stormed past.

"Fuckin' annoyin' little bastards," Angel growled.

"I think they're cute," Coco said, shrugging and looking at him. She suddenly craved for Angel to stay a little longer for an unpleasant chit-chat, rather than leaving her alone in this place. "So, um, is your room just as-"

"Empty and depressing?" Angel finished for her. "Yeah, it will be till you settle in. Look kid, as much fun as babysitting you has been, I've got better things to do with my afterlife than hang around your door and look for a nightlight. So, I'm just gonna be on way then."

"Oh! But I-" Coco looked for any reason to keep him there. "Uh, I-I still don't know much about the hotel. Like, when are the doors locked or-"

"Look kid," Angel hushed her with a wave of his hand. "You don't wanna be around me for any longer than I do. So let's just cut the crap and stay the fuck away from each other."

"…" Coco wasn't sure she had anything more to say after that.

Angel sort of had a way of stunning her silent. A talent that wasn't lost on him, and seemed to be fairly entertaining. He pressed a hand to his mouth to suppress a giggle; taking in a whiff of her scent, something that made his head rush a little. Watching her start something she couldn't finish made him quiet giddy, like watching your favorite car crash on repeat. Like her expressions were a kind of toy he enjoyed playing with, a fairly cute looking toy at that.

Maybe she was more entertaining than he thought.

"Sweet dreams," Angel almost purred as he turned, taking hold of the door knob with him as he slowly shut the door and hallway light out. "Oh and uh, try not to disturb me too much okay? You do that, and we'll just be the best of neighbors. See ya around, Doll Face."

The light pink siloughete of Angel Dust faded with a dull thump and closed her off in a room void of light. Leaving Coco the unpleasant feeling of being left alone in a room that made her feel very scared and homesick all at the same time. She was now standing before the bed and everything else with very few possessions, very little idea of what to do and next to no hope about what would come next.

She stood around for maybe two minutes before realizing she could actually turn on a light.

'Better not go blind.' Coco thought, walking in the direction of the door and feeling around for the light switch. 'Ah ha!'

Once the light switched turned out, it took a few buzzing sounds before overhead lights that burned like center stage lights flickered on and off. It made the room far too vibrant, with shades of red even more focused and a strange kind of heat only caused by over hot bulbs could make. And made you focus on little details here and there for too long so that you were starting to see things that shouldn't be there.

'… Not much of an improvement.' Coco wondered if she should just learn how to appreciate the dark more.

Not taking anymore of this lighting situation, she walked over to the curtain drawn windows across from the bed. Maybe if she had some natural light, whatever it might be, she'd feel more comfortable.

Drawing back the heavy curtains, Coco saw that the sky was slightly fading from red to black but uncovered a strange kind of horizon. Other than the hovering, over imposed pentagram, there horizon setting was split between spiky looking forest and a road with shanty buildings and streetlights. The curtains must be soundproof as well because suddenly Coco heard shouting, crashing noises, screams and howls coming through the glass.

She shut the curtains and sat on her bed, deciding sitting in a quiet murder scene was better than listening to another one outside.

'…Well.' She tried to think of some good things. 'It's… mostly quiet. And… big.'

"This was a terrible idea, wasn't it?" Coco admitted to herself and she slumped down and rested her head in both hands. Suddenly feeling overcome by exhaustion, she felt her body sink into the reality that she had just placed herself in the hands of some other idiot demons before thinking about what to do first. "Why am I such a fucking idiot…?"

She let herself sink into this for a few minutes before slapping both hands on the bed and standing up. Taking in a deep breath, Coco tried to knock of the same sense of self-pity and walked out of the room with the book and key.

'Come on,' Coco scolded herself, walking towards a set of stairs and going down. 'What am I complaining about? It's Hell, can't really expect decent living here. And, let's face it, I literally asked for this. Can't show Blitzo and the guys' that I'm too scared to take care of myself. Gotta live on my own until I figure out a way to get out of here!'

That's the spirit! And with this new found irritation in herself, Coco tried to find her way back down to the lobby in order not to feel lonely. After all, you can only pressure yourself so much to be a better person until you need to have peer pressure.

Even if those peers happen to be demons. Still better than nothing.

"Wait," Coco stopped in the middle of the random hallway. She looked around and realized… she had no idea what she was doing. "Where am I?"

Even though every hallway here looked vaguely menacing and ominous, this one looked distinctly different from the one she followed Angel Dust down. In fact, it even smelled different from the first one.

'How did I get lost walking?' Coco wondered, then holding up her wrist and looking at her Moral Compass. 'I should have just used this. Okay, maybe I can still fix it!'

"Where's the best way to the lobby?" Coco asked the Moral Compass, quickly looking over her shoulder to check and make sure no lurking demons were around trying to corner her. "And make it quick! I don't want to be stuck here forever…"

The thick arrow on the compass wiggled for a moment before spinning around quickly, like it was trying to locate something. After a few turns it slowed down and stopped, pointing directly behind her.

Coco turned around and looked down the hallway for something, but saw the arrow just jostled and pointed behind her again. Annoyed, Coco turned around again, saw nothing and then saw the compass was still pointing behind her.

"Is this thing broken?" Coco wondered, shaking her wrist and holding it up to her ear as if she was expecting it to start ticking. She frowned deeper as realized how stupid this was and held it out in front of her. "Some cursed object you turned out to be. What's the point of being possessed if you don't get something useful out of it?"

She had the weirdest feeling like something in the back of her mind was shaking its' head in frustration. She quirked a brow, then looked back at the compass and saw that, maybe the arrow wasn't pointing behind her, but at her. At her chest to be exact.

"What the…" Coco palmed the front of her chest until she felt a bump under her shirt. She reached down and pulled out the skeleton key from her shirt pocket and held it out. Remembering what Charlie had said about it, she wondered why opening a locked door would help her now. "Why would I need this for now?"

That same weird feeling came back from the back of her head, and this time she heard a sort of echo come around her from the empty hallway.

"Use the key…"

"…. Thank you ominous voice?" Coco said quietly, looking around herself carefully. She checked to see if the hallway was still abandoned, confirming that the voice did in fact come out of no where and solidify that she should be scared shitless. "Should I really be taking advice from something that could likely be a mental illness?"

The Moral Compass arrow then pointed directly up to 'y' for Yes. Probably a decent idea given that she had no other options left.

"I was being sarcastic," Coco told off the Moral Compass. She bit her tongue, realizing bitching at herself and a cursed tattoo wasn't doing much to get her out of being lost in a haunted hotel. "Guess I don't have much of a choice right now…"

The Moral Compass then slipped down and pointed to 'n' for No.

"I wasn't asking you!" Coco yelled in aggravation. "UGH! Fine! I'm going! Jesus H Christ… How do I even use this thing? I just pick a door, right?"

Coco walked up to a random door and stood in front of it for a moment. First she knocked and listened into it, making sure no one was inside first.

'Why would a murderer answer a knock at the door?'

She then tried opening the door but found it was locked. Finding she had no better option other than unlocking an empty room, she put the key in the hole and turned until she heard a click. Pulling it out and putting it back in her pocket, she opened the door to a less dark room and looked back down the hallway.

'No point in waiting around here,' she summed up before turning back to the room. 'Might as well check it out.'

Coco stepped in and quietly shut the door behind her. She walked through and looked around, seeing that the whole area was actually… familiar. The floors were wooden, the wallpaper was random and faded, and there were large windows all around her.

She walked a few steps more before coming through an entry way and-

"HOLY SHIT," Coco said far too loudly, stepping into the middle of the lobby next to the bar where everyone else was congregating. "I'm back where I started?"

Everyone looked over at her like she was a general irritant and then went back to their business, which just happened to be wasting time.

"So I guess we gotta congratulate the idiot on standing the obvious?" Husk said, thumbing the top of a glass like he was deciding whether to break it or clean it.

"Hey, I'm just surprised she managed to get down here on her own," Angel replied, also playing with an empty glass. "Doll looks like she needs professional help just picking out what to wear."

'I can hear you, bastards…' Coco cussed inside her head.

It was pretty obvious to her now that just about everyone here was awful, Angel in particular seemed to have a new habit of easily getting under her skin. So it would be best if she did take his advice and just stay away from him as well as any other demon for the rest of her trip in Hell.

'Good thing this place looks like no one else will ever come to it,' Coco thought, walking past the bar in search of either Charlie or Vaggie since they looked like they knew what they were doing. 'You know, of their own will.'

"Oh hey!" Charlie walked out of a side door alongside Vaggie and caught Coco, smiling at her as she made her way up. She looked unexpectedly enthusiastic for some reason like she couldn't wait to tell Coco something. "Great news! I have a totally new idea that I think you're prooooobably gonna love!"

It was weird just how expressive Charlie is and how she inflected everything with so much energy. But it was also super cute too.

So, just as Coco was very nervous and a little skeptical that Charlie actually knew what was a good idea or not, but decided to humor her and go along with it. After all, the woman was currently keeping her off the streets.

"What's up?" Coco asked, walking over to Charlie.

"I have implemented a brand new Hotel system," Charlie leaned in, excitedly explaining. "A support group!"

"Support group?" Coco echoed.

Multiple groans were heard behind her and Coco resisted groaning herself. The idea of a support group sounded… kind of…

"Like at an AA meeting?" Coco asked, thinking back to all of those movies about old sad men sitting around and secretly wishing they could be drinking again.

"What's that?" Charlie asked confused.

"Yes," Vaggie said shortly, taking Charlies' shoulder and stepping in. "Pretty much. We're just trying to keep everyone accountable for each other and things should work out fine here. And that means you, newbie."

"Okay?" Coco said, tossing the idea around her head for a minute and before shrugging and gesturing that she thought it was a good idea. "But uh, I'm not drunk."

"Yet~!" Someone from the bar stated.

"It's more than just that!" Charlie chimed in, popping over excitedly. "We are starting a peer support system, a buddy policy!"

There seemed to be a very long moment where everyone stood still and looked in complete stupefied disbelief at the woman who says she's an adult. Was this a joke? An elaborate ruse? Was she high? Were you high? Are we all high right now?

"…" Coco looked on in disbelief and turned to Vaggie, asking quietly under her breath and hoping on the faint chance she was joking. "Is she serious?"

"Yeah…" Vaggie already had her hand planted on her face in complete disappointment. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't convince Charlie on how bad an idea this was. "She is."

"…" Coco turned to look at Charlie again, now trying to see any humor and when she didn't, looked pretty horror struck. "Um, can I remind you I'm new here?"

"And what a perfect way to get you used to living in Hell!" Charlie exclaimed, looking super supportive while taking Coco by the shoulder and gesturing to the group by the bar like she was showing them off. "Than by relying on your support system right here!"

Coco just stared forward and was met by Husk ignoring her and Angel Dust flipping her off. Oh yeah, you can just feel the love from here…

"Greeeeeeaaatt…" Coco said, forcing a cheesy smile and underplaying the sarcasm. For some reason, she had the feeling that going along with this girl would save her a lot more mental energy in the long run than anything. "So uh, what do I do? Just… keep an eye out?"

"Actually," Charlie clapped her hands a little bit too quickly. She had a sidelong look in her eyes like even she was uncomfortable with what she was about to say. "I was thiiiiinking you could take a little bit moooooooore proactive approach!"

"…" Coco continued to be silent and listened, but was getting a more and more bad feeling with every lengthened syllable. "Like?"

"Since you're an innocent human, I think you have the most potential in helping our clients change their ways towards redemption!" Charlie did a short of side step and twirl that reminded everyone more of a tap-dance performance than an actual business proposal. The seriousness of this idea was down played through it, but definitely caught every bit of her attention. "It's because of this that I want you to work even closer to our hotels' dream! I'd like you to support Angel in his rehabilitation!"

"…" It felt like she just swallowed her own tongue while her eyes started bugging out.

Now more than just stunned silent, Coco was outright shocked. That couldn't be right. What was it she just heard? She said what now?

"What!?" Coco outright shouted after a full minute of silence.

"I told you this was a bad idea," Vaggie said under her breath, starting to hide under her gloved hand and wish she also hadn't been a part of this terrible plan.

"It'll be great!" Charlie said, stepping up in between both Vaggie and Coco. She was speaking softer, but her tone was firm and unwavering. She had already put in minimal thought and figured what she says go anyway! "Angel knows all about Hell, so he can help you get uh acquainted, and you can help him on his long term goals of rehabilitation! He's been focusing on recovering from drugs and he's been clean for a few weeks now. So it'd be great if you could help him focus, and help him turn into a better person!"

Coco sort of stared at Charlie before chuckling nervously a little, as if she could see a funny joke coming after this to relieve the tension. This girl wasn't being serious, was she?

She was. And Charlie knew she wasn't selling this well and decided to be more proactive about it.

"Plus!" Charlie continued, trying to stay upbeat. "I'm sure you understand that two people helping each other would be better for both of your longterm goals. I bet that helping out Angel Dust will even help you become a more patient and open minded person!"

"Definitely make you more patient," Vaggie said mostly under her breath, remembering all of the times she was close to killing the man for some stupid shit or the other he did.

Coco looked on at Charlie in pretty much awe-struck horror. She didn't know Charlie was leaving out the man was a machine gun carrying, gangster connection person, porn star, psycho killer. All she currently knew was he was rude, perverted and had a possible drug problem. Even worse, he seemed to have a strange desire to torment her whenever they were forced to interact with one another.

'You want me to be around Hell's most impossible person and think that'll make me more open minded?' Coco mentally screamed after Charlies' explanation. It was almost insulting.

Coco was semi-prepared to deliver a long, structured delivery about how that was a bad idea and how she wanted to stay 10 feet away from any possible demon for as long as she had to. But, after looking at Charlies' red-brown eyes, she remembered how hard to was to be rude to pretty people.

"… O-Okay…" Coco chocked out, suddenly losing all of her nerve and negotiating skills in favor of just accepting any that happens.

"Really!" Charlie said excitedly, taking one of Cocos' hands into her own and giddy shaking it. "I'm so glad we came to an agreement!

'Worst deal with a devil ever,' Coco concluded.


	10. It's not so bad It's terrible

Coco couldn't quiet explain it but trying to actually sleep in the hotel felt like an impossible exercise. The fact that her "new room" was empty and impossibly dark with the lights off and currents shut made her felt like she was going to be swallowed up. The lack of any sound was anxiety setting, like she had to be constantly listening for something in the background. And she knew that other people were here…. Just not where.

"I'm going insane." Coco turned on the light and threw the covers off the bed.

Looking at the clock, it was 1am and she had come to the conclusion there no way at all she could actually sleep in the hotel tonight. There were just too many underlying problems with her and this place that kept her from being able to relax enough to sleep.

"Ugh…" Coco let out the most depressed and tired sigh her chest could muster. "I'd rather sleep

on the couch in IMP with Blitzo watching me again…"

That was true. She could easily fall asleep in the office or at Moxxy and Milly's house because she knew that everybody in the office was close by. She missed hearing the sound of their breathing and Blitzo purring. She missed how open the rooms felt and how there was always the sound of something ticking, dripping or dropping. She even missed the mysterious sounds of something moving above her and the random gun shots!

Coco got up and wondered if this meant she needed someone to sleep in the same room as her, or at least close enough to hear them? She walked over and opened up the door to the hallway, listening in on the silence of the entire hotel. It was strange how you could hear absolutely nothing. The floors and walls weren't even making noises, there was no settling sounds that most old buildings made.

It was like you were living inside something dead.

'It's like two steps away from being 'Un-Space'.' Coco remembered that short nightmare stint inside absolute nothingness, an experience that can only be described as suffocating terror to the core of her being. Anything that is conscious shouldn't have to face that existence, of being somewhere where 'being' does not exist. A sort of state in-between nothing and something, because it was absolute nothingness. Meaningless-ness. It was just… not anything. Sin existence. And she remembered being the only cogniscent thing in there.

'If you tear away walls, floors and the ceiling; a quiet place can just become empty-nothingness….'

Oh yeah. If you're getting philosophical this early in the morning, then you're definitely driving yourself a little crazy.

"That's it," she said, getting up out of bed and taking the book under her arm. "I give up. Hell is no place to rest in peace at."

\- Later in the hotel —

Vaggie came downstairs in the morning and opened up the kitchen to find Coco standing at the counter and nursing a heavy cup of coffee. When Coco looked up and saw Vaggie standing in the doorway, they both just stared at one another for a minute like they couldn't actually believe someone else was awake at this hour. Even more surprised it be them.

"Uh," Vaggie just stared at the human while her brain was processing social interaction so early in the day. "How long have you been up for?"

"Just… awhile." Coco responded, looking over to the pot of coffee and taking another sip from the mug she found.

"And how many of those have you had already?" She asked, pointing at the coffee pot that's obviously been refilled.

"…" Coco remained silent and instead took an even longer sip from the mug.

Vaggie let out a sigh and walked over to the cabinet to get herself a mug. She didn't know if she had any place to lecture a grown adult who's about her age on how to take care of herself. But she had enough right to mention how weird it is to see said adult doing a poor fucking job of it.

"You know not sleeping will just drive you insane," Vaggie said, walking over to the pot and pouring till it reached halfway up. She was too tired to be giving a lecture but figured pointing out the obvious would get her point across the most. "And this place isn't the best at keeping people sane in the first place."

"I'm pretty sure I'm long past the point of reasonable sanity," Coco smirked, shrugging a little as Vaggie poured. She then remembered how Vaggie doesn't particularly like her at this point and started to nervously chuckle. "Hehe… I'm just functionally insane at this point."

"Welcome to the club then," Vaggie responded unsympathetically, putting the pot back and taking a sip. "Mmm, good coffee."

"I know how to make a good strong brew." Coco said quietly, glad to have done something right. Between being a teacher for awhile and a current grad student, she knew how to make something decent out of even the worst stuff. "I just couldn't get sleep tonight. Figured I'd hang around here to…"

Coco trailed off. She couldn't think of any way to explain how sitting in the kitchen reading books in the middle of the night to avoid feeling lonely wasn't pathetic. But Vaggie just nodded and skipped ahead to pretend like she didn't care.

"We've all been there," she assured before walking over to the table to sit down. Since she just woke up and was more bored than angry, she decided to keep the conversation going. "So, it's hard to sleep at night here?"

"Uh," Coco blushed, looking away and trying to explain herself without being impolite. "Well, i-it's just me being nervous is all. N-Not that you guys have done anything! I-I'm just not used to the-"

"I meant Hell," Vaggie pointed to the ground under her feet slowly, regretting she had to point out the obvious. Taking another sip of the coffee, she figured she might as well lighten up and give Coco some advice. "My first year here, I barely slept. I think I was awake for at least twenty hours every day. I can't blame you if it's unnerving to close your eyes anywhere in this place, but I can promise you it won't make this a more pleasant experience if you keep it up."

"…" Coco kept quiet for a moment, then walked over to the table and sat down a few feet away from Vaggie. It was weird to think this, but since Vaggie was the most human looking person, Coco really wanted to relate to her. "Did you ever get used to being here? To being a… well, someone who lives in Hell?"

Coco had a hard time using the word "demon" to describe either Vaggie or Charlie. They just looked and seemed too human to be demons. Especially Vaggie, who seemed to be the most no-nonsense straight-(wo)man Coco had seen here in Hell.

Vaggie quirked a brow at the sudden directness, she hadn't pegged Coco to be the forward type. But she brushed it off and decided it couldn't hurt to talk to her, as long as she chose her words carefully.

"Eh," she shrugged her shoulders and sipped again. "It's not like it's something you can't live with. I've been here a couple of years now, but even I'm pretty new with lots of stuff here. I guess I'm kind of sheltered compared to some of the others."

"When did you get here?" Coco asked, interest peaked at how knowledgable Vaggie seemed to be.

"2014." She said offhandedly, as if it were her age.

"Whoa! You're so young!" Coco said, then blushed and turned away. Realizing that that actually wasn't a good thing. "I-I mean I-I'm so sorry to hear that…"  
"Eh, don't freak out about it." Vaggie said off-handedly. She had stopped being sensitive about her age a while back and took Coco's comment as an honest observation, her teeth looking less sharp now then before. "Yeah, I died pretty young and not too long ago. I try not to let it get me too down. If I did, I couldn't function here."

"It must be hard…" Coco said quietly, the words just slipping out. Coco couldn't even imagine how hard it must be to function as reliable as Vaggie does everyday.

"Not really," Vaggie drank the last bit at the bottom of her cup. Not attaching any emotion to the feelings of sympathy. "You always die. Sometimes quick, sometimes slow and painfully. But you'll always die. And you'll probably end up here."

Coco held her tongue for a minute after that. She wasn't sure what Vaggie was getting at, but it sounded like she was just saying that to herself more than to anyone else.

Coco decided to change the topic.

"You think you still look human because you haven't been here that long?" Coco asked, looking particularly interested on that topic.

"Hard to say," Vaggie said, getting up to put her mug in the sink and wash it. "There's lots of demons who come down here looking pretty disgusting and disfigured from the start. I guess it might have something to do with how close you feel with being human… But I don't know. I can't judge."

It was silent for a minute as Vaggie washed her dish. The only sound between them the running water. Coco held her cup in her hands, the warmth almost completely gone and the liquid still dark but less appealing. She bit her bottom lip and forced out her voice again.

"Sorry if that was too… personal." Coco said, looking down at her cup. "I just, don't really know what to talk about with other people. I don't know anything about Hell or what people do down here. I feel like I just make it obvious I'm still a human…"

"Well, it didn't hurt my feelings," Vaggie said, flicking water of her hands then turning to walk back over to Coco. "But don't forget. You're not the only person who's living in this place. Everybody here is "alive", in a sense. We just… we just have a different definition of life and death is down here."

"It's really confusing," Coco admitted, her eyes showing how disturbing some of the things she's seen that are considered 'normal' happen on a daily basis. "I don't know if I can get used to it…"

"Don't be so closed minded," Vaggie scolded before sitting back down and giving her a cold but patient look. "You're smart enough to figure this shit out. Just remember, you're still a human so you can't play by demon's rules. But don't hold us to your standards."

"Huh?" Coco looked confused for a minute after what Vaggie said. "I didn't know I was-"

"I don't mean you can't expect anything civil from us," Vaggie explained before looking away for a moment. She sounded like she was trying to teach you something she had to learn on her own. "Just don't act like you have something to teach everybody just because you're doing a little better. People down here have a lot of shit, but there is some kind of system going on. So don't act like everything has to be exactly like it was in the living world or that we should be following those stupid hypocritical rules humans say they should follow."

"I don't think that…" Coco said, feeling defensive at that comment. "I didn't know I was… I'm sorry…"

"I'm not trying to be a bitch," Vaggie immediately clarified and help up her hands to show there was no malice. She turned her head and looked at Coco with serious but softer expression. "I'm saying this because… this place isn't your home. So, you can't be here and keep comparing it to the living world. It's the first rule we all have to learn. Once you've left there, there's no going back. So it doesn't help you to keep thinking about it while you're here. It'll only make you more depressed."

Coco stayed quiet for a while. She wasn't sure how to integrate that to her situation right now. It's obvious to her that Hell is… hell. But was she still stuck in the past? Was it so wrong to be comparing Hell to Earth when… Hell isn't Earth.

Vaggie let out a sigh softly and got up, patting Coco on the shoulder. It was the most "human" thing she could think of to make Coco look less like a kicked baby. And she couldn't help it, the human did look particularly pathetic when wallowing in depression.

"Just something to think about," she said before walking away. Immediately feeling weird about showering her with minimal comfort. "I don't want to see you all burnt out because you couldn't adapt to here on your own. Just remember, the hotel's got your back. But-"

"You guys aren't humans," she finished, smiling up at Vaggie. "I won't act like you owe me anything. But… I'll still treat you guys like humans, if that's all the same."

Vaggie stood a bit taken back for a moment before smiling and nodding. She then immediately freaked out about doing that and walked out of the kitchen and over to the hallway, letting out a deep breath and shaking her head.

'How the hell are we going to keep her safe if she can't even sleep over for one night without an emotional breakdown?' Vaggie looked over her shoulder back to the kitchen. She let out a sharp breath from her nose and shook her head with an annoyed look. 'She won't get anywhere with redemption if she thinks she's the only good person here. Just… are we supposed to be redeeming her? Or does she think she's supposed to be redeeming other demons. Ugh, that coffee works too well…'

And that's how Vaggie left Coco alone in the kitchen unsupervised.

"She seems nice," Coco said naively. Deciding to continue staying up past the point of good judgement, she figured she should start making breakfast. "I wonder if you can make pancakes in a microwave?"

A very bad decision on all of their parts.

-Several hours later-

Husk normally sleeps in a room behind the bar where there's a decent bed and decent space to live a semi-functional depressing existence. Unless he spent the whole night drinking. Then he passes out behind the bar and under several cases of bottles that he tells himself is cheap booze even though it smells like pure ethanol.

He generally rouses himself out of his night terrors around noon to the sounds of screaming and threats, only to quickly begin drinking again. So when he was roused awake at what he assumed was… not noon. Was very weird.

And the fact that he was woken up by the sound of someone continuously knocking on the top of the bar like an alarm clock was also not helpful.

Knocknockknockknockknockknockknockknocknotcockknocknockknockknockknockknocknocknockknockknockknocknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockn

"What the fu…" Husk half blinked his eyes open immediately and he knew he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep without punching anyone. "ALRIGHT! What the fuck do you want with my afterlife!?"

Husk stood up all the way, knocking over countless bottles to pieces, only to see Coco standing on the other side of the bar holding a plate of hot cakes in one of her hands. She looked more confused than Husk was but put on a civil smile and held out the plate to him.

"The kitchen was on fire for awhile there but it's all good now," Coco said while hoping to pacify the situation, leaving out significant details to the rest of that story. She seemed to look completely fine but the sleeves on her shirt were completely singed "Just thought I should let you know. ?Desayuna?"

Husk stared blankly at Coco for a total of 5 seconds in stunned silence, forgetting that she had even existed since yesterday. Which is weird because she's a tiny human who definitely looks like she should have been eaten alive by now. He then looked down at the plate and back up at her again. Deciding that the offer of food was good enough negotiation to not kill her, he took the hot cakes and immediately turned and walked away to ignore her somewhere else.

"Wait I need to know if.. there's a… fire alarm and…" Coco stopped as soon as Husk began flipping her off from ten feet away. She then sighed and shook her head in self defeat. "And why did I expect a demon to care if I almost burnt down the hotel?"

"You almost burnt down the hotel?" Charlie asked confused, standing right next to her.

"GAH!" Coco shouted, jumping a full two feet back while looking at Charlie stunned. "When did you even get here? I mean… Almost. Almost burnt down the… hotel."

"No worries!" Charlie said quickly, giving off a light chuckle. She seemed to be able to be cute and scary at the same time and that wasn't really easy to handle at the moment. "It takes a lot more than one kitchen fire to bring down this hotel. I had it specially repurposed to stand up to even the toughest disasters and attacks Hell can supply!"

"Uhhh… okay." Coco wasn't sure whether to take that information as good or bad at the moment.

Coco wasn't sure anymore whether to feel safe when Charlie was around or slightly on edge, given that the woman seemed to be able to sneak up and surprise her at any moment. But Charlie was also cute and seemed to be actively trying to be a decent huma-um, Demon. Therefore she wasn't the worst person she's met here.

"I'm glad you're awake!" Charlie said actively, wrapping an arm around Coco's shoulders and walking her through the front lobby. "I have an amazing idea to help you get started here and helping Angel Dust with his rehabilitation!"

"Oh, really?" Coco said, putting on a very forced smile and false giddy voice. "N-Now? It's so early- I mean, _greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat_…."

"The sooner we start, the sooner we see progress!" Charlie nearly sang out as she began gesturing to the kitchen. "And it'll be a great way for you both to bond and-"

"NOT IN THE KITCHEN!" Coco immediately warned.

Before Charlie could ask why, Coco ducked down and pushed Charlie to the bar stand with awkward strength and stress. Once there, Coco just smiled as much as she could to distract them from her sweating.

"Heh heh," Coco started, trying to think of ways to keep people out of the kitchen for the foreseeable future. "O-Or we could just… have it right here! B-Better to have breakfast at a table like this, you know what I mean?"

"…" Charlie looked at Coco surprised for a minute, trying to think of why she wouldn't want anyone in the kitchen for some reason. But then she figured that the bar was just as nice of a place to start and smiled eagerly. "You're right! Let's make this a comfy atmosphere to get started then, now that Husk is out."

Charlie clapped her hands together and Razzle popped out from behind the bar, surprising Coco with his sudden appearance. He stood up and swept off all the bottles and glasses from the counter top before laying down a red and white striped table mat and placing down a portable moka pot and coffee mugs.

"Nice!" Charlie said eagerly, nodding at Razzle. "Now we just need some food and-"

This time she was surprised to see Coco laying down a plate of hot cakes that stacked up to ten. They stood on the table while Razzle quickly ducked down and pulled out a bowl of apples and sticky syrup-looking substance. Charlie just looked on for a second before grinning up at Coco.

"Aw~ You made breakfast for everybody," Charlie said cutely. So happy to see someone caring about others.

"Uh, yup." Coco said with a stressed smile and avoiding eye contact. Hiding many awful secrets that happened in the past hour. "Yeah. That was totally my intention…"

"Now all we need is Angel Dust," Charlie said looking behind her before clapping her hands again. "He should be asleep in his room for awhile. Razzle, tell Dazzle to get Angel Dust up and ready for breakfast!"

"Are you really sure we should do that just to-"

Before Coco could finish, Razzle gave a tiny salute and seemed to disappear behind the bar. It was a few seconds before she suddenly heard a lot of noise and crashing sounds from upstairs. Startled, Coco stepped back a few steps before suddenly Angel Dust dropped from the ceiling and directly behind the bar.

"Owww….." Angel Dust groaned before pulling himself up, fully dressed but obviously not by his own hands, and leaned over the bar with a pissed off expression and bags under his eyes. "I swear, I will gut and tear apart those little fur balls with my own teeth when I get a'hold o' you!"

Coco, stressed by the sudden appearance of the tall pink demon, turned to see both Razzle and Dazzle standing on the other side of the bar with mischievous grins. They obviously took a lot of pleasure in torturing the half awake Angel Dust by throwing him out of bed, into a wardrobe, into some clothes and then down the stairs behind the bar. Well, Charlie did say that they just had to get him down here and not how…

"Thank you boys," Charlie said cheerfully. "That will be all."

"Those twos are a menace to society!" Angel shouted, now standing up all the way and pointing at them with a set of two hands while baring his teeth. "Next time you two midgets sneak into my room while I'm asleep, I will rip out your throats and use them as dildo covers!"

Coco tried to ignore these threats that were happening right beside her and figure out what the hell was going on. Razzle and Dazzle simply nodded to Charlie, walked over and stared up at you for a good five seconds and then scurried along with secretive plans of some sort.

"Well that's not suspicious at all…" Coco said under her breath.

"Nothin' good can ever come out of those tiny fucks." Angel said on a final note before looking over to see both Charlie and Coco standing over on the other side of the bar. He then let out an exhausted groan, not surprised that the source of this never ending annoyance was coming from either of them. "And what the fuck do you want from me now? You realize it's… uh. What time is it, Doll Face?"

"Doll Face?" Coco repeated before looking over her shoulder at a clock. "It's like 7:15am."

"It's fucking morning!" Angel yelled , throwing all his hands up in the air and starting to growl lightly to himself. "You realize every hour is unholy before happy hour?"

"Now Angel," Charlie said in a pacifying voice before moving over to be closer to both Coco and Angel. "It's time to start your day with a little early morning redemption exercise! And what better way to do that than over coffee and breakfast!"

"…" Angel just stood there now with a 'wtf' expression like he was too tired to be bothered with an angry look anymore. He just looked at the bottom of the bar with different contents and started trying to process his life a little more. "Well. I guess any hour in Hell is happy hour with the right liquor."

Angel picked whatever bottle he could easily grab and then climbed over the bar to sit on a stool. He was about to start trying to open it before Coco walked over with a mug of coffee that was still hot. Apparently she had quickly started making some as soon as she could. Angel, never one to question free food, just took it from her and proceeded to go back to ignoring her existence even as he drank.

"So what's your game here this time, princess?" Angel asked after taking a few sips and feeling a bit more game to play. "What? Are we all gonna have a tea party here and braid each others' hair?"

"I'm glad you asked," Charlie said while ignoring the slab of sarcasm. She brightly smiled over at both Coco and Angel before pulling up a stool to sit down at too. "I think one thing that everyone needs to work on in order to be better people is by being friendlier with everyone!"

"Friendlier?" Coco asked, sitting down and quirking her brow. Was she already not being friendly enough to the most impossible person in the room?

"Yes!" Charlie clapped her hands and nodded, happy to have two mostly willing participants here. "And since you're new and both of you are guests, it'll be a perfect way for you two to start bonding together since you'll be spending more time working on redemption for each other while you life here!"

"UGH!" Angel slammed his hand on to the bar for a minute then picked it up and rested it in two hands. He stared over with dead tired eyes and wished he could just throw over the bar, but was restraining himself in order to keep his room. "No no. Go on, continue. This whole stupid exercise seems like a _great_ way to waste my time in the morning."

Coco just lightly glared at Angel who was still doing his best to ignore her existence. She wasn't sure why he was so against putting in minimal effort to be tolerable, but figured he wasn't going to be changing any time soon either. So this whole thing seemed like it was going to be miserable.

"Okay…" Coco sighed, resigning herself to having to interact with Angel for longer periods than desirable. She looked up at Charlie and hoped whatever she had planned could be over and done in under five minutes. "I guess we, well, I can try. So, what do we have to do?"

"This is just something I want you guys to do to help you guys get more comfortable with each other," Charlie said, promising that this would be as painless as possible. "Just start off by saying one nice thing to each other and we'll work our ways up from there!"

Well, if that was all she had to do, Coco figured this could be easy enough for anyone to do.

"Okay, huh, I guess I'll go first?" Coco looked over Angle and thought for a minute before putting on a small smile, giving an honest easy thing to comment on. "Your colors are really pretty. It's the nicest shade of pink I've seen around here."

Angel thought this was the dumbest thing he's ever been asked to do and treated it like like that. Not even giving it a second thought, he tossed out the first thing he could think of.

"You look like a homeless bum that got caught in a trash fire like an idiot," Angle deadpanned, not even bothering to pick his head up from his hand. He started checking out his nails and continued half heartedly. "But hey, you pull it off or somethin'."

The long silence that followed that was thick. And Coco immediately began regretting ever setting foot inside this hotel as her face started lighting up a bright shade of red.

"Was that you're nice thing or are you just warming up?" Coco asked, already beginning to get irritated.

"Huh? What? Not feeling all warm and bubbly yet, Doll Face?" Angle said, rolling his eyes. He then smirked and turned to face her in his seat, figuring he could get some amusement out of this if he just kept teasing her. "If you're lookin' to "feel good" about yourself, you might have to take care of that privately~"

Coco sat there confused for a minute, not getting whatever he meant. But the Angel held up a set of hands and started rubbing them together and… she sort of got the message.

"That's-you-I'm-UGH!" Coco just continued to get flustered up as she realized what he meant by that. She covered her face that had turned a bright shade of pink and gave one last pleading look to try and see if he could be nice for a second. "Can't you just try and play along for a minute?"

"This ain't a team effort, Doll," Angel said with a chuckle, enjoying her fluster. "Not even if you think of me while doin' it."

It was completely obvious that Angle wasn't putting any effort into this at all. But she also saw that Charlie hadn't noticed his complete lack of effort and so she vowed to keep going through this torture to help her feel better. After all, she's gone through almost 28 years of shit and all of middle school being bullied, how bad could this be?

"Okay, first. Let's not turn this into a fight you guys!" Charlie said, immediately standing in-between the two of them while starting to sweat a little. Who knew this was a bad idea (except everyone else)? "Second, see how she smiled at the end of it! It shows she actually cares and is telling the truth!"

"What part of me looks like a caring comfort creature?" Angel commented with a side long glare. And then also picking up the hint and giving grin. "And what part of what I said didn't sound like the truth?"

"How hard is it to pretend to be nice?" Coco said, opening up both hands with exasperation. "You don't need half a brain to just say something nice for a minute."

"Ey, watch it Doll Face." Angel said, pointing a finger at Coco with a side glare. "Not all of us can be stupid little care bears who give a shit like you."

"Can you go five minutes without being a total jerk?" Coco said gritting her teeth, trying to be civil even though she was getting angrier and angrier. The curse mark on her upper arm starting to heat up more and more.

"Jezz, can you even speak like grown up and cuss? You sound like a retarded cartoon character." Angel Dust smirked and chuckled, liking how easily he could push her buttons even when she's on the very edge. "It's adorable. I almost can't take how fucking cute you are, like some kind of rejected preschooler with tits."

"Can't we stop now?" Coco asked Charlie, turning to look at her while pointing at Angel's self-satisfying grin that now is an eternal source of frustration for her. "I'm kind of sick of being of made fun of for being human!"

"Aw, what's wrong, Baby?" Angel continued to tease, taking pleasure in this endeavor now. "Did someone get bullied too much in Catholic school? What? You wanna get mad and spank me for hurting your feelings~?"

"Oh I would slap the _shit _out of you if I wasn't trying to be a good person…" Coco growled under her voice, now locking eyes with Angle and feeling the curse mark starting to burn. "And you make it so hard…"

"I make everything hard, baby," Angel said, playing with his empty cup of coffee before giving her a little grin and puffing up his chest. "But hey, maybe your little good girl act makes it fun for you in the bedroom. Too bad its so much more fun to play naughty for me~"

Charlie saw this was going nowhere and starting to create a lot of tension. Even weirder, Coco was giving off something that was starting to make Charlie feel very uncomfortable. So she had to pacify this quick and see if she can end this diplomatically.

"Okay, Angle, this isn't some kind of game you can use to take advantage of," Charlie said firmly before perking up a little. She wanted to see if she could actually get one attempt at being nice out of him to try and meet them in the middle. "Look, Coco is right. Being nice isn't that hard when you just think about it carefully. Try again! This time, Angle, you go first! How about you say something nice and simple?"

"Simple?" Angle said, giving a laugh as he looked at Coco up and down. Her very appearance in the baggy clothes borrowed from Moxxy and Blitzo made her look like a child pretending to be a grown up, which was so fucking sad it was hilarious. "You want me to actually find something that isn't completely pathetic here?"

"Do I really need to be here anymore?" Coco groaned while looking at Charlie.

"Just try it!" Charlie said louder, in a tone that was half pleading and half demanding.

Both Coco and Angel sighed at this and went back to staring at each other, now just trying to get this over with as soon as possible.

"…" Angle stared up and down at Coco for a moment, racking his brain for the least insulting thing he had but that was getting harder and harder to find. He looks down at her breasts for a second and then back up. "There's room for improvement."

"You're one to talk!" Coco said, covering her breasts and angrily flushing.

"Uhhhhh," Charlie let out a long, tired sigh. She saw that this had been the opposite of productive and decided it was time to change tactics. "Okay, that's enough everybody. Let's call it a morning and try again later."

"Right," Angel said, rolling his eyes and standing up while taking several hot cakes to leave with. "What ever. In the meantime, I have better things to fuck around with that aren't here. Don't bother me, Doll Face."

And with that, Angel got up and left to his room where he planned to sleep and relax until something else interesting happened. And when he did leave, Coco finally rested her head on the bar top and sighed. It was probably from the lack of sleep, but Coco now felt more emotionally exhausted than an hour ago.

"Please never make me do that again…" Coco asked Charlie while still covering her face on the bar.

"Sorry…" Charlie said sympathetically. She sat down next to Coco on the other seat and put her hand on her shoulder consolingly. "I guess you can't force things to change that quickly overnight… But. You're doing a good job so far. Thanks for trying."

Coco looked up at Charlie and smiled. Happy to at least see that Charlie knew she was putting in some effort.

In the next minute, both Vaggue and Husk came walking into the room. Vaggie looked slightly worried about something while Husk just dragged his feet behind him like he couldn't be bothered to do the job he's paid to do.

"Hey, Charlie," Vaggie said, pointing her thumb behind her at the office. "Something uh… Sensitive came up. You might want to take a look at it…"

"Can it wait a minute?" Charlie asked, looking up over and Vaggie before gesturing her head at Coco. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"… Trust me. It's **sensitive**," Vaggie said testily, trying to emphasize this was important without have to spell it out. "I just heard about it over the** radio**…"

"Hell still uses radios?" Coco asked, surprised they were still using such old tech.

But that seemed to completely change Charlie's mind as she broken into an incredibly stiff smile that showed various levels of stress and agony pouring out over it. Coco began to wonder just what exactly was so unpleasant that had to be playing on the radio…

"OKAY! Thanks for this morning Coco!" Charlie announced as she got up and awkwardly started making her way over to the back room. "We're making real progress over here with Angel Dust and everyone! Ah ah ha haha… S-See ya around! Have fun at work today!"

And with that, Charlie and Vaggie both quickly walked over to the office together and left Coco sitting alone at the bar table. Coco pondered what was seriously wrong with these people as Husk briskly walked back behind the bar and began picking up a coffee cup to fill.

"Um… So, what was that about…?" Coco asked Husk, gesturing with her thumb over to where Vaggie and Charlie went.

"Don't bother with things that don't matter," was all Husk said.

Coco stayed quiet for a minute then, watching Husk fill half the mug with coffee and half with vodka. A weird choice since she would have mixed it with whisky herself.

"Do you think there's actually anyway to make Angel Dust like me?" Coco asked Husk. She felt desperate to appease the people here so she wouldn't have a miserable experience in the hotel, and also so she might actually make friends with someone other than Charlie. "Or just, not hate me?"

"How the fuck would I know." Husk responded. Putting the bottle down and then drinking the whole cup of coffee in one dump, Husk rolled his eyes at the whole thing that was going out. "Why should anyone care if anyone likes 'em? I don't even care if you like me, so quit fucking whining at my bar."

".. But," Coco was about to retort before she let out a big self defeated sigh and dropped her head down. "You're right…"

Coco felt exhausted, and hot all over. She wasn't sure about that last part, but it was definitely also tugging on her energy. To the point she wondered: Can she even really be a good person? After all, if she can't even handle Angel Dust, who just seemed to be all talk, then how can she handle herself around actual demons in Hell outside of the Hotel?

Husk looked down and saw Coco's sad green eyes and felt a sort of pang of regret. It was obvious she felt some kind of grief, and even though he couldn't understand it, he did feel like it was weird she was even trying.

" Tell ya what kid," Husk said slowly, making Coco look up at him. "The fact is, it's pathetic seeing a whiney human crave attention from a lanky whorish piece of shit and then have her feelings hurt for not knowing better."

"Gee, thanks," Coco said, feeling her heart break a little more as she sunk down in her arms.

"But, the fact that you're tryin' to actually find some good points with a piece of shit like Angle Dust, and that you actually care about how people think of ya…" Husk looked for some words that he could use that didn't sound like total crap or make him want to puke. "You're not a BAD kid."

Coco sat up after that and looked up over at Husk. He actually did try to say something nice to her, and she could tell me meant it. That was actually the first thing that made her feel welcomed here.

"Aw," Coco said, smiling a little wider at Husk. "Thanks, Husk. That's really nice!"

Husk caught her smile and flustered a little, feeling weird to have a human girl even saying something like that to him. He knew he had to quickly insult somebody in order to get rid of this giddy feeling her cute smile was giving him.

"Now don't come over here thinkin' I'm gonna start cheerin' ya on or anything!" Husk said loudly, quickly turning around so Coco couldn't see him blushing a bit. "Just because you don't make me

wanna puke doesn't mean your entire existence doesn't bother me. Now quit tryin' to buy my attention and fuck off somewhere useful."

No longer feeling so depressed, Coco cheerfully took his advice.

"Okay~" Coco said cheerfully, jumping off the bar stool. "I guess I should see when Blitzo and the others are coming."

'She seriously only needs one compliment and she feels better?' Husk thought to himself. He picked up a glass that he planned on pretending to clean until he caught a glimpse of his reflection with a scattered blush all painted over it. 'SHIT.'

He immediately threw the glass onto the floor and broke it into a million pieces. Coco turned her head in question and Husk just stared at her blankly.

"It was a... faulty glass." He said.  
"... Okay." Coco responded.

Then a knock came at the front door followed by Blitzo and Luna walking in together into the hotel.

Coco! How's my wonderful employee!" Blitzo cried happily walking in. "If I don't see you in the next 15 seconds I'm gonna start blindly shooting everything~!"  
"Can you stop saying that every time I leave a room?" Coco asked, walking over to Blitzo and Luna with her bag.  
"You got the book?" Luna asked, barely looking away from her phone.  
"Yep," Coco nodded, showing the book attached to her hip via the belt.

"Great!" Blitzo cheered, pulling Coco under his shoulder and readjusting the devil horn headband. "And how was your first night? Want to stop over and see the other losers for a minute and-"

As Blitzo was talking, a loud BANG! was heard from the kitchen area as if something was falling to pieces. Followed by the cries of terror from Niffty in the other room as well.

"OH MY CLEAN HOUSE WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE!?"  
"Gotta go let's go to work now BYE!" Coco shouted, pushing her two coworkers out of the Hotel to face another day of Hell and the IMP office.


	11. What ever the Hell is wrong with me?

The biggest problem about Hell is the air. Or the lack of the breathable kind anyway.

"I hate the place," Coco said while laying on top of her desk and wheezing. She had just spent may 20 minutes total with Blitzo and Luna outside and already she felt like her lungs were on fire. "The air is trying to kill me…"

"It's trying to kill all of us," Moxxy clarified, taking a sip of coffee. He then looked at it with disgust and realized it was awful. "Who made this shit? It wasn't the human."

"Maybe it wasn't a good idea to move so far away from the office…" Milly said under her breath as she watched Coco try to return to normal breathing patterns. She had also dumped her cup of coffee out the window and was hoping Coco would make some soon.

Even though the demons seemed to be fairly okay, the atmosphere for a human was semi-toxic. Something that, if exposed to it for too long, would end up seriously damaging her insides. Not to mention the heat, which was always sweltering during the day to the point even most demons would rather hang out inside than venture out at the risk of being cooked.

"How am I supposed to not die when Hell is literally trying to kill me with its environment?" Coco complained, pulling out a stack of papers she used to fan herself with. She had a fairly dark expression that had carried on from her morning interaction with Angel Dust and settled in a set of disappointment. "It's like living in the middle of Arizona but somehow even worse…"

"You need some new clothes, sweetie," Milly said, picking up Coco's sleeve with two fingers and examining how tattered and ill fitting it was. She grimaced at both the looks and the outcome. "For your healths' sake at least…"

"Just wear this." Moxxy pulled out something from his desk and handed over a face mack for Coco to wear. It was black with a red X on over the mouth cover but had a filter on the other side. "It'll make breathing when you go outside a little easier."

"Just don't stay out for too long," Milly said as Coco pulled the mask over her face to test it out. "Seems like when it's our "day time" you've got the most problems. Just stay inside until it's night time and you'll be in the clear!"

"Isn't night time when the most murders and terrible things happen?" Coco questioned, lowering the mask so she could easily talk.

"…." Both Milly and Moxxy stayed uncomfortably quiet as she pointed out the fault in that logic.

"You know what, just don't go outside." Moxxy suggested immediately. "Like, never leave the Hotel or IMP if you don't have to."

"And now I live under house arrest in Hell," Coco quietly complained before reflecting on that statement and shrugging. "Eh. I guess I can live with never socializing outside of the hotel. Not like there's any reason I'd wanna leave the hotel or anything."

"Great news!" Blitzo said, slamming open his office door and smiling widely at his unfortunate employees. "I have a reason for everyone to stay outside today and not go home!"

If you could possibly hear it, Coco's mind suddenly sounded like someone went around a fine china shop with a hammer and smashed every single thing to pieces. One by one…

"…" Coco stared in deep horror at Blitzo and went back to self reflecting on her life. "why did I have to open my big mouth…"

"Paid day off, I've got no problems here." Luna said, already kicking everything off her desk and walking out.

"I think we're missing the why in the equation," Moxxy said testily, trying to put a stop to all these over reactions. He stood still for a moment awkwardly before realizing he should be the one to ask Blitzo. "So uh… why?"

"Glad you asked!" Blitzo started, walking over to the middle of the room with a proud smile. He had a stack of papers under his arm and was holding a mug of coffee that he just dumped into a trash can. "I just got a local assignment that requires someone~, with some high financing, to stop over here and pay us a visit."

"Wha?" Coco looked over at Milly and Moxxy for explanations.

"He means Stollas is coming over and you need to fuck off," Luna told her as she walked out the door, slamming it on the way.

"… Please no." Coco said, remembering that one terrible phone call that still haunts her mid-day terrors.

"Why's Stollas coming over to our office?" Moxxy asked confused. "He never needs anything from us. I mean, nothing that's important enough to not mess up."

"Yeah," Milly agreed, acknowledging their incompetence. "And why would he want a hit here and not in the Human world?"

"I'm glad you're all too stupid to figure out the answers for yourselves!" Blitzo said cheerfully while holding out the papers that were under his arm. "Take a look!"

He spread the paper collection over the top of Coco's desk and showed a mini set of profiles of significant demons. While Coco had almost no understanding of this, she did recognize a few of the thugs from the Miss Honey instant and saw some of the buildings mentioned looked similar to her factory.

"Wait," Coco said, standing up to look closer at everything. "Does this have anything to do with Miss Honey and the book?"

"Good for catching up in time," Blitzo said cheekily while patting Coco on the head like a child. He really did enjoy having such a novice in the office. "Yeah, turns out we jumped the gun just in time on all of that Miss Honey shit. So I'm gonna need you to to kill a selected bunch of morons around the city that has anything to do with a border disagreement."

"Okay…" Moxxy said, picking up some of the files. From his tone and expression, it was obvious he was uneasy about this. Especially because a lot of these demons were significantly taller and… known to not be so nice. "But why are we in charge of killing them? We're supposed to be the human murderers, not the clean up crew!"

"We're doing it less as an order and more as a paid professional courtesy," Blitzo said cheerfully. He pulled out a wad of cash and thumbed through the bills with a smile, admiring the fact that he was getting paid more money for higher grade assassinations he'd have gladly done for free. "A very well compensated courtesy to take out our own enemies. Win-win."

"YEAH!" Milly said, pumped up over the fact that she gets to commit a murder spree without leaving the comfort of her own city. "That's get those son's of whores for kidnapping our hostage!"

"I have mixed emotions about all of this," Coco said. Very uneasy about the moral ambiguity of all this and even more confused about what she'd have to be doing about it. "I'm only doing the paper work, right?"

"You'll do it all tomorrow," Moxxy informed her, already picking this all up. He sighed at the inconvenience of all of this and resigned himself to being a part of this company's terrible decisions. "Okay, so what exactly are we doing here…?"

Blitzo began by splitting the targets up between Milly, Moxxy and himself and settling places of interest on the map on the board of the wall. He also guessed how long everything should take and gave some ideas on how to make things more gruesome than necessary without taking up too much time.

"Stollas wants a clean sweep of the area and for it to be done as nasty as possible," Blitzo clarified before smiling. "And who better to do that then us! Plus, it'll help with the office moral! I think everyone's been a little uneasy after the whole "human manifesting in the office and then getting kidnapped" thing. So I figured, let's go back to doing what we do best! ….. Murder. Ugly. Messy. Unnecessarily uncomfortable murder!"

"I was wondering why you had that sign hanging up here for." Coco said, looking behind her at the sign that literally said "_Ugly, Messy and Unnecessarily Uncomfortable!_" Hanging over her desk. She then turned to look at Blitzo with a tired look. "Can we… uh. Take that down or just… Move it?"

"Nope," Blitzo said, liking it hanging right there over her head. Then he clapped his hands and excitedly went back to business. "Alright everyone! Let's decide what weapons to take!"  
"Wait a minute!" Coco called out quickly. "What am I supposed to do? I can't go out and kill or anythin-"

"You get the day off!" Blitzo cheered. He then pulled out a wad of cash and balanced on top of Coco's head like a paper weight. "There! This is part of our compensation. Just go out, have some fun, learn a little bit more about Hell and all that and buy yourself something pretty!"

"This is Hell, not NYC," Moxxy said, slapping his forehead with how idiotic that statement was. "Don't go on a shopping spree while we commit murder."

Coco gently took the wad of cash off of her head and examined the different bills. Not only were they high amounts with creative little illustrations but… this was the most money she's ever seen.

'How much money am I even holding in my hands right now?' Coco got fairly uncomfortable when large amounts of money was involved. It was even weirder when she realized something. 'Wait a second-'

"I can't take this!" Coco said, holding the wad of cash in her other hand firmly while gesturing to it in moral outrage. "This is blood money!"

"No it's not!" Blitzo said, holding up the remaining stack of money before noticing some specks on it. "Oh, I guess there is some blood here."

"See!" Coco used to prove her point. "I can't use this! You giving me money to spend that you earned for killing other people is like condoning murder! Isn't it- like - accomplice to murder or beneficiary in legal terms?"

After having to move around Hell so much Coco's become very worried about her own moral balance. Agreeing not to use the scales everyday, she's had to come to terms with measuring out her moral balance on her own; something which is extremely hard when you have no idea what kind of philosophical law actually rules the universe.

"Does it really matter though?" Moxxy asked, looking over his should at Coco with a skeptical look. "You're already on our payroll and you do all of the filing."

"Yeah, well-" Coco started, putting her arms down and averting her gaze from critical self inspection. She obviously didn't think this through. "I-It just feels wrong to be doing this when I don't know what's gonna happen. It's like using dirty money…"

"Aw~ Sweetie," Milly came over with a reassuring smile, patting Coco on her shoulders consolingly. "That's a load of horse shit and you know it."

"…" Coco pouted for a bit before giving Milly a cross look. "… explain?"

"All money is dirty." Milly summed up while holding up her hand and counting off reasons why. "All money goes to taxes supporting war. All money has trace amounts of drugs on them. All money is used as tracing devices."

"Not to mention every dollar bill you've ever used was also probably used by a serial killer as well at some point," Moxxy chimed in with that little bit of information. "Or by cops who beat prisoners, old men spending on their sugar babies, women who buy rat poison to kill their husbands, moms who beat their children. And a whole list of shit people."

"…yeah." Coco blushed thinking back on it. It was true, it's weird to argue a moral high point when it's convenient for yourself when in reality you've never thought about it in practice. "It's just… I don't wanna do anything that makes me a bad person by relation…"

"Honey, if killing people second hand made sinners, then every shmuck that worked at a gun factory or steel frame supplier would be down here!" Blitzo said cheerfully, not mentioning that a lot of those people actually did live down there (for various other reasons). "Don't over think it! It only matters if you're actually trying to kill someone in the first person with the actual intent!"

"… Okay," Coco said, looking down at the money in her hands uneasy. She knew his reason was loose and faulty itself, but she was more worried that she was willing to use it just to feel more comfortable with accepting money. "It just kind of feels weird. Like… I'm complacent to something as long as it doesn't make me feel morally at fault?"

"Eh. Everyone's complacent for some kind of murder." Blitzo said, shaking his hand and looking up towards the ceiling. He couldn't even keep track of all the things he kills. "Just comes with the territory of living in a place with feasible internet and grocery stores."

"Why would you get in trouble for us committing murder?" Moxxy asked confused. "You humans sure do over think things."

"Cheer up, sweetie." Milly said, patting Coco on the back. "I'm sure it won't effect anything!"  
"Yeah!" Blitzo cheered. "Now go out there and spend my money!"

"But," Coco brought up something else. "I-I can't go out shopping alone! I don't know where anything is and… I wouldn't even know what to spend this on."

The group made a long sigh before everyone nodded towards one another. It was like they were all silently agreeing to let Coco in on a secret they had been keeping from for the sake of peace.

"You gotta try and learn more about the city if ya wanna live here without a hassle," Milly said to Coco honestly. She was speaking sternly but from a good heart. "If you keep needing us just to go out and come back to the office, then you're gonna get in trouble one day when we can't come and get you!"

"You guys were the ones who just said I should never leave the hotel or the office," Coco reminded her. "I seriously doubt I'll ever get myself into that much trouble on my own…"

"Also, and I say this with nothing but love," Blitzo said gently, walking up to Coco and putting his hands on her shoulders. He let out a deep, heavy sigh that he had been holding in and made a very pained expression. "Your style is trash and is starting to make our style look bad. Please change."

"You're the ones who gave me these clothes…" Coco seethed, looking up at Blitzo in anger.

"Yeah," Moxxy nodded while crossing his arms and giving a sour look. "But we didn't know you'd wear them so badly."

"Hey!" Coco yelled while glaring at Moxxy. "I don't have any other clothes! How was I supposed to know I was gonna get kidnapped and bring some spare clothes on Halloween!"

"Well now you have something to fix that!" Blitzo said brightly while gesturing to the money in her hands. He then let out a breath and looked at Coco seriously, not as a friend but as an occasionally competent boss. "Listen. You can keep wearing our handmi-downs and looking like a hobo, or be honest and get yourself some new clothes."

"But I don't know how to look like a demon without them," Coco said, touching the clothes she was currently wearing. The truth is, she's very comfortable with these treads that everybody gave her. They were like physical proof that everybody cared, something that protected her. "What if I do it wrong…?"

"Aw, there's no wrong way to be a demon!" Milly said, feeling heart broken.

"Actually there is." Moxxy corrected, now looking at Coco seriously. "Just make sure you bring one of your new roommates along to help you pick these things out."

"Hey, one good way to make sure nobody fucks with you is with some killer fashion sense," Blitzo tipped in, poking Coco in the shoulder with his elbow. "And hey! You humans respect people who look put together and care about their appearance. Isn't taking care of yourself supposed to be a sign you're mentally stable or whatever?"

That was true. People always said that is you want others to respect you, you should look the part. And Coco never really had the funds to invest a little in her looks or appearance. Always settling for looking and feeling crummy instead of trying to look like an adult or a profession.

'I really haven't been taking care of myself since I came here….' Coco conceded in her mind. She was happy that she brushed her teeth every night, but her skin was starting to break out from not being washed and her hair was a mess. 'Even I wouldn't want to hang out with someone who looked like me.'

She looked over at the scale of skin to see her reflection. The baggy clothes were not in her style and made her look frumpy. The only thing that lead others to believe was her wearing her wrist bands and the mask while the little horns on her head were starting to feel ridiculous compared to some of the real demon features out there. At her own appearance, Coco conceded that Angel Dust actually was right: She looked like a homeless bum.

"Honey," Milly said, resting an arm on Coco's shoulder and looking over at her reflection. Milly's whole outfit spoke of who she was and since her appearance was so taken care of, everyone knew to respect her. "You need a new style."

"…" Coco stared back at the mirror and decided, if there's one thing she could do down here, it's that she should be trying to look more professional and put together. She wanted to look like everyone at IMP with her own style. "I guess my room does need some interior decorating. And some clothes that actually fit would be nice for a change."

**Back at the Hotel ***

Husk was again sprawled out on top of the bar taking a mid-day drunk nap when Coco walked up to the front counter. She seriously considered letting this sleeping dog lay (cat? Wolf?) alone and walk around by herself, then remembered it's his job to work here and help her out when she didn't know what she was doing.

So she began ringing the the bell on top of the bar/front desk non stop until she saw signs of life coming from Husk's carcass.

DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDICKDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING!

Now Husk is a pretty deep sleeper and often a semi-reasonable guy when he's half drunk. But the sound of a ringing high pitch alarm blaring in his ears, waking up from pleasant nothingness caused him to surprise-rage. Starting with falling backwards and landing on his ass.

"Ow-WHAT!" Husk yelled, standing back up and pounding both hands on the desk and glaring at Coco. He should have know it was her… "What the Hell do you want so bad!?"

"Good to see you too~" Coco cheered, not threatened at all by Husk. It must have been because he looked like a really grumpy Disney cartoon or because he was generally too stoned to be a threat. "Do you know where Charlie or Vaggie is?"

"You got a death wish…" Husk growled before blinking confused. "Ey. How come you're not at work? They fire yer ass yet?"

"Nope," Coco said, peaking around the place. "I got a paid day off. As in they paid me to leave for the day. Where are the girls?"

"Don't know, don't care." Was all Husk said before leaning back in the bar and giving her a glare for interrupting his nap. "Why don't you go get lost trying to find them."

Coco huffed her cheeks with a pout before turning and leaving with a 'fine!'.

'I don't need him,' she thought while pulling up her wrist and smiling. 'Not when I have my moral compass to guide me here! I haven't used this little trick all day, hopefully it'll work.'

"Okay then," she said, looking at her wrist before holding it out towards the walkway. "Here goes nothing. Take me to Charlie!"

As childish as this may be, it actually began working. The smaller needle pointed to the left and took Coco on a stilt through the Hazbin Hotel. She began noticing little details about the Hotel that passed her, like how creepy all the portraits are. Or how weird that the wall paper is reddish pink. How many weird stains are on the hardwood floors.

'But really, those paintings are super creepy,' Coco thought while looking away again. It was obvious they were all family paintings of Charlie, except… 'She just looks so unhappy in all of them. And who's that tall guy with white hair? Her brother?'

She was distracted for a minute before the needle pointed at door near the end. Putting down her arm, Coco went up to the door and smiled when she heard both Charlie and Vaggies' voices. She was about to knock when she noticed that they were getting louder.

'Oh boy,' Coco thought embarrassedly. 'Sounds like they're having some kind of… argument maybe?'

Coco was torn, on one hand she was incredibly stressed out about the potential of over hearing the two hotel moms fight and wanted to hide. On the other hand, she's also a drama whore and wants to know what's got mom and mom so worked up.

'It can't be about me, can it?' Coco wondered, looking down at her moral compass skeptically. 'If it's about me, I'd want to know it right? Or, maybe it's about something else?'

The needle was tossing between the Y and N, probably because she wasn't actually asking a direct question. And, deciding having curiosity was no moral conundrum, Coco walked up over to the door and pressed her ear gently against it to listen in.

'20 seconds and I'm out,' Coco said to herself. Knowing full and well that that was all bullshit.

"Do you think he's going to notice…?" Coco heard Charlie ask.

"No Charlie," Vaggie said, her voice rising and falling so it was hard to correctly make her out. "I'm sure he won't notice the only FUCKING THING around that isn't…"

"Language." Charlie said strictly.

"We can't just pretend that…" Vaggie's voice went out for a second before coming up. "And we need to hide… Or else he'll just want to make a deal and…."

"You think this is deal worthy?" Charlie asked, now sounding very worried. "Oh shit… M-Maybe we can come up with…. I mean no one else noticed that…"

"Yeah. Not every demon is a powerful being of unimaginable…" Vaggie kept getting lower and lower to the point Coco could barely hear her. "We should find a way to…"

"W-Well we don't even know when he'll…"

'This is weird,' Coco thought with an uneasy expression. She leaned in a little closer to try and put the pieces together. 'They're obviously talking about another demon. But what are they hiding? Is there something else they're hiding inside this hotel or…'

Coco wasn't paying attention and shifted her foot too far and thumped it on the bottom of the food. She stopped as she heard tables and chairs started shifting around and backed up immediately.

'SHIT!' Coco thought, backing up and looking around. 'WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo?'

Vaggie, the quickest thinking of the two demons, quickly hushed up and opened the door outside the office. She looked and peered around to see no one was there. Strange since she had definitely heard something from behind the door.

"What is it, Vags?" Charlie asked, looking over at Vaggie concerned.

"I don't know," Vaggie said, backing away from the door for a minute before walking outside. She was sure something had been there, but maybe it could have been her imagination? "I thought I heard something. Maybe I'm just-"

"Good morning!" Coco said, popping up from behind Vaggie and smiling a little too much. She was also being a little too cheerful which just came off as nervous, loud laughter. "Or is it afternoon? Who's keeping track of people- I mean time! Hahaha! Yeah, hi…"  
"WAHH!" Vaggie shouted, nearly falling over and second dying of a heart attack. Coco has most definitely not been there a second ago. "Where the fuck did you come from!?"

Coco had definitely not meant to do that, or any of this really. She had just slipped past and opened the door next door to the room with the skeleton key, only to walk in directly to that same room through the door to the closet. It was definitely confusing, given that the key just blatantly defied the law of physics, but Coco then just slipped past Charlie and Vaggie unnoticed to reintroduce herself at the front of the door.

"Oh, Coco!" Charlie said, popping her head from around Vaggie with a tense smile. She felt very awkward that Coco had shown up just now and, quiet frankly, at the worst possible time. "W-What are you doing there?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a work or something?" Vaggie asked, irritated and pointing at Coco with a sharply manicured finger.

"I got the day off," Coco said, trying to quickly pacify the situation by averting eye contact. She wanted to step around their previous argument as carefully as possible to avoid getting them suspicious. "So, haha, is-is this a bad time…?"

"Yes," Vaggie said bluntly.

"NO!" Charlie said, pushing in between Vaggie and Coco with a tense, nervous smile. While this meeting was important, she didn't want Coco to think they had been talking about her. "E-Everything's great! It's a great time! So. Whaaaaa~t can I do for my favorite human tenant?"

"Only. Human tenant." Vaggie corrected.

"Um, i-it's nothing really important." Coco said, holding her hands up defensively. Wow, this was much harder to say than she thought it would be. "I-I just need to go out and buy some new clothes. A-And I wanted to know if you guys could… well… Come out shopping with me? S-Since I don't know where anything is or how to get around or anything…"

'Wow. I sound really pathetic right now.' Coco realized this and immediately hated herself a little bit more. 'No wonder Emily dumped my ass…'

Vaggie and Charlie looked surprised by the very innocent request, they hadn't thought of such a mundane task as shopping being something so hard for a human. They looked at each other briefly before coming to the same conclusion.

"Sorry, Coco," Charlie said apologetically, giving Coco a small smile. "We're just…. A little busy today with some uh, management issues."

"Management?" Coco asked, looking startled. She was pretty certain that that meant, yes they had been talking about her. "Is it… Is there something I should-"

"It doesn't concern you," Vaggie said strictly while holding up her hand to tell Coco 'STOP'. Well, it did concern her but not yet. "Much. Look. We're busy today. Too busy to take you out shopping."

"…" Coco looked up at Vaggie with a hurt expression before looking down at her shoes. "I'm sorry…"

Oh yeah, that expression definitely tugged at their heart strings. Her hurt look actually made them feel guilt. How could that kid look so sad so quickly?

"Wait!" Charlie said quickly, feeling guilty but putting on a smile to pacify the situation. "I think I know a good solution to this."

"You do?" Both Vaggie and Coco asked. Vaggie confused and Coco hopeful.

"Why don't you ask Angel to take you!"

"Terrible idea," Vaggie deadpanned.

"Worst idea ever," Coco agreed, looking sad and horrified.

"C'mon, guys!" Charlie defended, looking a little anxious before puffing up with pride. "You're basically roommates now. You guys have to learn how to get along together, for the sake of both of your redemption. Plus! It'll be a great way for you two to bond together!"

"…" Vaggie and Coco stared at Charlie with blank stares before turning to look at each other.

"If you do it I'll give you 50 bucks." Vaggie said, knowing that money was one of the few things that can make being around Angel tolerable.

"I'll pay him 50 as long as I don't die." Coco said, agreeing to the terms.

"Ooooooookay…." Charlie drawled out, disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm but happy to they were willing to at least give it a chance. "It's all settled then! Just be sure to stay near Angel Dust at all times and you'll be safe and sound!"  
"Don't do anything stupid," Vaggie said directly.

"How do I know if it's stupid or not?" Coco asked confused.

"If it's your idea, it's probably stupid."

"…" Coco just glared at Vaggie before looking away since she didn't have any argument to counter that point. "Uh huh. Noted."

"And have fun!" Charlie reminded her.

Coco walked out the room and left the two girls alone, where they both let out audible sighs and looked at each other concerned.

"How are we supposed to protect her outside if we can't even protect her inside the hotel?" Vaggie asked, looking visibly worried about her safety. "If Alastor doesn't agree to the conditions of leaving her alone, we won't be able to stop him from doing anything!"

"Don't worry Vaggie," Charlie said. She walked over and hugged Vaggie around her shoulders. Vaggie didn't show when she really cared about something, but when she does care she cares hard. "We'll think of something. And anyway, I'm not worried about what he'll think of Coco. I'm worried what that "sudden business" of his might mean…"

**\- Back to Coco beans - **

'Well, like my life, that was a giant disappointment.' Coco conceded as she walked out of the room. Feeling tired and over all miserable, she forewent using the moral compass and decided the short cut in this hotel was the best. 'Eh. Let's just use the demon key and get this over with.'

She opened the closest door and walked through it, opening up to her bedroom.

'Huh,' Coco held up the skeleton key and smiled at it novelly. 'This thing is actually pretty easy to use.'

Once inside, she dropped everything but picked up the book and a wallet, throwing in half the wad of cash she got from Blitzo while hiding the rest behind the mirror on the dresser. She then looked in the mirror and readjusted the headband while trying to make the eyeliner more inline, something she was still pretty novice at.

Since landing in Hell, the book was her safety connection to Earth and the curse so she kept it close to her at all times. Tying it to her hip with her belt, she left her room and walked the five steps over to where Angel lived.

'Am I really about to do this?' Coco wondered, already exhausted by what an afternoon with this particular, and appropriately titled, demon would amount to. But, she had promised Blitzo and Co. that she would get some new clothes and told Charlie she would try. So she was reserved to make Angel as much as a part of her life as he was unwillingly able to oblige to. 'Great. Well, no point beating around the bush.'

But that didn't mean she was necessarily going to do that politely.

'Let's assume this guy is dead asleep and needs to wake the fuck up.' She thought, smirking to herself.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKNKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKNNOTCOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKNOCKKNOCK

It wasn't long before the door was thrown open by a grumpy, half dressed Angel Dust. He was wearing a long, light pink robe and his white hair was flopped over half of his face. It was the first time she had ever seen him up close and Coco realized that it was also the first time she had seen him without make up on. It was not an impressive sight.

"Yeah yeah, whattya' want with me now ya-" Angel stopped mid-sentence and saw Coco standing down below him. The tiny, unimpressive human registered as annoying, especially since now she was intentionally waking him up before 4pm and looking at him like a clueless idiot. "Didn't I already tell you not ta bother me?"

Choosing to ignore Angel, Coco turned her head and looked into his room. She saw, yes, his room was built similarly but was definitely styled to his personality. The four poster bed was very fluffy and messy, the vanity was turned into a movie star's make up desk, the were clothes with complicated holes and strings thrown around everywhere, and other… unmentionable… things… just lying around in boxes and set up next to cameras.

'I wish I had not seen many things in here…' Coco thought to herself after doing a once over. Although she was pretty impressed by how much personality was fitting into this room at one time. 'Gotta say, the guy knows how to style his room. Wait a minute. Is that…?'

"Is that a pig?" Coco asked, pointing down at the ground behind Angel Dust and causing him to look back.

She was, indeed, pointing at some kind of small pot belly pig that was sitting at the foot of the bed. It was small, round with lots of heart shaped markings and very pink. It was kind of weird that a fairly normal looking animal was being left in Angels' room, unharmed and fairly peaceful at that.

Angel looked over and actually blushed, very embarrassed that someone had seen something so… private of his. He was even more disturbed when the little pig got up and started walking over curiously to the door to get a better look at Coco.

"Get back in there you-!" Angel said under his breath while gently scootching Fat Nuggets away with one slippered foot and closing the door carefully. He then leaned against the door to try and pretend that hadn't happened by putting on a false playful attitude. "Soooo~ whatda ya want now, Doll Face? Ya here to borrow some cream and sugar to play house with?"

"That was a pig wasn't it?" Coco asked, pointing at the door and grinning up at Angel Dust. This was the first time she had ever seen him so discomposed, and it was fun.

"Will you get over the pig already!" Angel yelled while raising a set of hands. Dealing with the human was exhausting to him, now adding the fact that she thought she could tease him to? No, only he could play that game, baby. "What are you wasting my time for now after I've gone so far out of my way to tell you how much I don't want to be friendly?!"

"I'm just here because Charlie said it'd be a good idea to go out shopping with you," Coco said peacefully with a calm attitude. She looked up at Angel with a disinterred expression and crossed one arm over the other, acting like this was no big deal for her either. "I'm going out today, but I don't know where to go for good clothes and stuff. You want to come and go shopping downtown for an hour or two?"

Resolving that by acting like she didn't care if he didn't come or not was the best way to get him to do what she wanted. Especially since he didn't seem to have any general interest in actually helping anybody but himself. If this small amount of manipulation worked, Coco figured it'd be pay back for treating her like such an idiot from this morning.

Angel stood there and blinked, thinking about the offer for a minute. He didn't have anything else to do for the day, but he wasn't all that attached to spending more time than he absolutely had to with a mousy human who had too much sense than necessary. He leaned back against his door again and figured he could negotiate something here.

"Well, I did say I was sick of seein' a homeless bum hangin' around," Angel said, still not fully paying attention and preferring to examine his nails. "But what's that gotta do with me?"

"I need some new clothes and you seem to know the most about, well, "style" I guess here in Hell." Coco said, taking a very quiet middle line that was both a compliment and a back handed insult. "Maybe you wouldn't mind taking me out and showing me where to go and get some new clothes and stuff from?"

Coco waited quietly as Angel looked down at her, weighing her up, before glancing up to the side to ponder this. True, he didn't have anything better to do; but then he'd have to spend the whole afternoon with a human. And she wasn't too thrilled about it either, having to spend an hour looking at clothes with the most impossible person she's ever met.

"I'll give you 50 bucks if you promise not let me die on the side of the road." Coco sweetened the deal, severely under valuing the price of her life for the chance to get a new pair of shoes.

But it seemed like neither of them had any other better choices for the day. So they resigned themselves to having to be near one another.

"…. Alright," Angel shrugged. He opened the door to his room to get ready. "Wait downstairs for me and we'll be gone in 20."

"Cool," Coco said, actually a little surprised that he agreed so easily. She looked away for a minute before getting back into plan mode. "Then I'll just-"

"And Doll Face," Angel said, sticking his hand over and rubbing her eye where a huge smudge was. "Try not to embarrass me with that hack job of an eye liner ya got there. I can't be seen hangin' around a clown in broad daylight. Looks bad for my image."

Coco was about to refute before Angel shut the door in her face. She stood there angrily before getting curious and walking over to the closest mirror on the wall. She saw that, yes, Angel was right. She had royally fucked up her own makeup.

'Shit,' Coco thought while wiping her eye on her jacket sleeve. She was more irritated that Angel was right how she looked like a clown than that she was terrible with this make up stuff. 'Can this day get any more - NO! No. Not gonna finish that jinx…'


End file.
